Planets
THIS MONTH’S PLANETS
Venus dominates the morning sky for early risers alongside Mercury
This month Venus will be strikingly bright to the naked eye, a dazzling ‘morning star’ in the east that will drag your eye away from everything else above the horizon. At the start of our observing period it will shine with a magnitude of -4.0, making it far brighter than everything else in the sky apart from the Sun and Moon. It rises a good two-and-a-half hours before the Sun, and as September ends and October begins it will drift eastwards into neighbouring Leo, where it will rise four hours before the Sun. By 5 October Venus will be shining very close to the star Regulus, which is one of the brightest stars in the sky – the 21st brightest, in fact – but is completely overwhelmed by Venus’ glow. But before that Venus will have a close encounter with another body. Look out for a beautiful waning crescent Moon approaching and then passing Venus in the morning sky between 11 and 13 September.