Morning Skies in the West

By Irwin Horowitz, 9-17-07

	Caption: (c) Fleischer Studios

The pre-dawn sky is beautiful this time of year.

Recently, I looked outside my window towards the eastern horizon and noticed an extremely bright object in the pre-dawn sky. I thought it might be an airplane, but after watching it for a minute or two, I noted that it didn’t move like an airplane would.

Could it be the first visible supernova in the northern hemisphere in over 400 years?  I pondered as my level of excitement slowly increased.  This object was much brighter than the star Sirius, the brightest star visible in the nighttime sky, which I could see to the south of this object.

Then I realized that it wasn’t anything that spectacular.  It was the return of the “morning star” Venus, which we had followed in the evening sky since the start of the year.  It has now passed between the Sun and the Earth, and is once again visible in the pre-dawn sky.  It will remain there until early next year.

Even we star professionals can be fooled every once in a while. 

For those of you who get up early and leave the house before the Sun rises, look for this extremely bright object and know that you are looking at our sister planet, Venus.  Not exotic, but bright and beautiful.