Monday 10th to Sunday 16th March 2025
Venus is a very popular target in the early evening sky at the moment. Look towards the west any evening next week to see it, but on Tuesday 11th in particular, a telescope will reveal the planet in a beautiful 5%-lit crescent phase. If you are looking west at
Venus is currently shining very brightly at a magnitude of around -4.0 and this is a good opportunity to explain the magnitude scale in a bit more depth. Imagine a reference star has a brightness magnitude of zero to start with. The scale works backwards, so anything brighter than the reference star will have a negative number and the fainter an object is, the more positive its number will be.
The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius with a magnitude of -1.44 and around
To put all this into context, our own Sun has a magnitude of -26.74 which is why you never try to look at it through binoculars or a telescope! With the naked eye, from a dark location, you can see objects down to a magnitude of about +6.0 so things like the Great Orion Nebula in the sword of Orion at +2.9 can just be identified. Anything with a magnitude more positive than +6.0 requires binoculars or a telescope.
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2025
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