dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (09/20/85)
Look for Venus very near the star Regulus before dawn on Saturday. More -- after this. September 20 Venus and Regulus Before Dawn If you get up before dawn on Saturday, and look toward the eastern sky, you'll see Venus -- now so bright it can be seen easily from inside most cities. On Saturday, you can see a much fainter-looking star next to Venus. It's really one of the brightest stars in the sky -- Regulus, the heart of the lion in the constellation Leo. Regulus is now climbing higher in the east before dawn each day, as Earth's predawn sky turns in the direction of this star's location in the galaxy. As the days pass, and Earth moves around the sun, our dark side will turn even more directly toward the direction of Regulus in space -- so that a few months from now the star will be overhead at midnight -- and by spring it'll be rising in the east when the sun is going down. That's the way of stars -- they rise earlier each day as Earth journeys around the sun. Venus on the other hand is much closer to Earth than any star -- and it moves around the sun even faster than we do. So Venus has a motion apart from the stars. The brightest planet is now in the east before dawn -- very close to Regulus Saturday morning. But as Regulus rises earlier each day -- and appears higher int he east at dawn -- Venus will sink lower in that part of the sky -- as it speeds ahead of Earth around the sun -- and soon "turns a corner" in the solar system from our earthly vantagepoint -- and disappears in the sun's glare. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin