End of the Evening Star - Get Ready for the 'Christmas Star'

Since last February, Venus has been a fixture of the evening sky, shining more brightly than anything other than the Moon and the sun itself. Not anymore.

The second planet is swinging in front of the sun and getting lost in the glare. Human eyes can't see it, but coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can.

Venus will be a bright dot in daily SOHO LASCO C3 coronagraph images, moving from left to right from approximately 23 up to 30 of October.

SOHO will be able to track Venus as it passes by the sun, transitioning from an Evening Star to a Morning Star.

Venus will pass between the Earth and sun on October 26, 2018. Astronomers call Venus’ passage between us and the sun an inferior conjunction of Venus.

By the winter holidays, it will make for a very appropriate "Christmas star," shining high in the eastern sky and rising more than 2 hours before the break of dawn and nearly 4 hours before the sun appears.


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