This month we have chosen to show you that part of the sky where the planet Venus is located. In a telescope, Venus shows phases similar to those of the moon.Venus is the bright star which has been visible in the southwest ever since last November. It has been moving farther and farther away from the sun toward the east. At the same time it has steadily grown brighter, and during the month of March, it will be at its greatest brilliancy. It is so bright that, if you are in a dark room into which it is shining, you can see that it casts a shadow. If you could look at it with a telescope, Map of Pegasus and Andromeda N indicates the north it would appear very much like the moon before it is half full, just as it is represented in the drawing.
The stars near it form the square of Pegasus, which you will see standing up on one corner, with one side nearly pointing at Venus. Pegasus is the winged horse, the square is its body, and the triangle of stars forms its head.
The star at the northwest corner of the square
is the same as that in the forehead of Andromeda, the adjoining constellation. Andromeda, you remember, was, in Grecian mythology, the maiden who was chained to a rock and was threatened by a terrible monster. She was rescued by Perseus, who turned the monster into stone by showing him the Gorgon’s head. The faint stars branching off from the middle bright one form her girdle. Close to the one under her right arm is a hazy spot of light which is known as the great nebula in Andromeda. It is one of the finest nebule in the heavens, as we can see from the photograph reproduced on the next page.—Caroline E. Furness, Vassar College Observatory.
The planet Venus
The planet Venus passes through all the phases that the moon does, and for the same reason. It does not give out any light of its own, but shines entirely by reflecting the light of the sun. Its path around the sun lies between the earth and the sun. When beyond the sun, as seen from the earth, its fully illuminated side is turned toward us, and it appears round, like the full moon. When it is this side the sun and coming in between us and the sun, we see only part of the side that the sun is shining on, and it no longer appears round. As it comes in more between us and the sun, it assumes the crescent phase, becoming a thinner crescent, until it is a mere thread of light, and is lost in the superior brightness of the sun. Under very rare conditions, at extremely long intervals, it passes across the sun's disk as a round, black spot, or makes a “transit,” as it is called. The last transit of Venus occurred December 6, 1882. The next will occur June 8, 2004. Few persons now living will see this transit of Venus. And many failed to see the transit of 1882 or 1874 (for they come in pairs eight years apart).
Venus is but little smaller than the earth, being 7700 miles in diameter. We, perhaps, never see the real surface of Venus (as we do in the case of Mars). It has a very dense atmosphere, which is believed to be constantly filled with clouds which hide from us a view of the planet’s surface. Nothing is known definitely as to the length of its day. Some astronomers believe that it always presents one face to the sun, so that any beings upon it would have eternal day or eternal night, according to their location on the planet. Other astronomers believe that the
