STARS & PLANETS MAKE ATTRACTIVE EVENING DISPLAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 54, 21 October 1949, Page 6

STARS & PLANETS MAKE ATTRACTIVE EVENING DISPLAY

Between 7.30 and 8 o'clock of every evening this week there has been a feast in the skies for those delighting in beautiful arrangements of stars. Venus has been little more than 20 minutes of arc away from the star Antares—an apparent distance less than the diameter of the moon.

The apparent close approach of Venus to Antares provides an interesting lesson in true astronomical dimensions and distances. Shining by reflected sunlight, Venus, the second nearest planet to the sun, has a diameter of 7,600 miles. Giant Red Sun Antares, on the other hand, is a giant red sun shining by its own light. It is some 400,000,000 miles in diameter and at such an enormous distance that its light takes 170 years to reach the earth. Recently the Evening Star or the planet Venus and the planet Jupiter have been attracting considerable attention in the evening sky. Appearing like a brilliant diamond in the west at about 7.30 p.m., Venus is the brightest object in the heavens. Jupiter is higher in the sky and second in brightness only to Venus.

Venus will become brighter and more prominent as the year continues, and by December, will pass to the crescent phase as seen through the telescope.

Jupiter, with a diameter of about 86,000 miles, is the giant planet of the solar system. Like Venus, it shines by reflected sunlight. Shadows, thought to be cloud markings, may be seen on Jupiter through a good telescope and are subject to constant change. Great Disturbances Since July astronomers have been watching great disturbances on the planet, the explanations of which are still based on vague speculation. While the principal features of the planet can be recognised readily by most people when first looking through a good telescope, the fine details studied by astronomers can be discerned only after long periods of experience and training.