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Jimmy Westlake

Jimmy Westlake's Celestial News column appears Tuesdays in the Steamboat Today.

Steamboat Springs — "Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight :"

These days, that bright star would be the planet Venus. Venus, the revered "evening star," is now shining at its highest and brightest in our evening sky. As the first star-like object to pop out after the sun goes down, Venus is the shining star upon which many a wish is cast.

Officially, Venus reached its greatest angle east of the sun Jan. 14. From now until late March, Venus will dominate our evening sky with its dazzling light. Then, it will move into our morning sky and dominate there for the rest of the year.

When Galileo first observed Venus in 1609 with his simple 30-power telescope, he was surprised to find that Venus showed a phase like a little moon. During a period of weeks and months, he watched Venus go through a complete cycle of phases, from crescent to full. This remarkable discovery demonstrated that Venus orbits around the sun, not the Earth, and presents different portions of its daytime hemisphere to our view.

If you own a telescope of any size, now is a great time to point it at Venus to see its phase. This month, Venus is in a quarter phase and looks like a tiny half-moon, but as we move into February and March, its phase will shrink to a thin crescent before it passes between the Earth and the sun on March 27.

Venus is the brightest object in our sky, after the sun and moon. Some folks have even seen their shadow cast on the snow by Venus light. Venus is so bright that you can spot it during broad daylight, if you know right where to look. A perfect opportunity to do this comes on the afternoon of Jan. 30, when the crescent moon will sit beside Venus and make finding it a snap. At about 4 p.m. Jan. 30, face south and see if you can spot the crescent moon about halfway up in the sky. Once you've found it, Venus should be easy to see about a fist-width at arm's length below the moon. After the sun goes down that evening, Venus and the moon will form a beautiful pair in the deepening twilight. The two will meet one more time, Feb. 27, before Venus leaves our evening sky for this cycle. When it does, the sky at night will seem very empty.

Professor Jimmy Westlake teaches astronomy and physics at Colorado Mountain College's Alpine Campus. He is an avid astronomer whose photographs and articles have been published all around the world. Visit his Web site at www.jwestlake.com.