What's that bright 'star' in the early morning sky? It's not a star at all!
Spotted a dazzling light in the eastern sky before sunrise? It's Venus, and the planet is only going to get brighter as it heads toward its spectacular peak later this month.
Early risers may have noticed a strikingly bright object in the east-southeast sky just before sunrise. This isn't a star, but rather the planet Venus, which has recently emerged from the evening sky and is now making a dramatic appearance in the morning. In fact, Venus passed between the Earth and sun on Oct. 24, marking its transition from evening to morning visibility.
As a result, Venus is now rising more than 90 minutes before sunrise, and will continue to rise three minutes earlier each day. By Dec. 17, it will rise 3 hours and 50 minutes before sunrise, illuminating the sky for more than two hours before morning twilight. Venus will reach its peak brilliance on Nov. 29, shining at a magnitude of -4.9, which is 12 times brighter than Jupiter and 25 times more dazzling than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
If you are living in a rural area with minimal light pollution, you may even be able to see Venus casting a visible shadow and spotting it as a tiny white speck against the daytime sky. Venus will continue to shine brilliantly until mid-December, after which it will start a gradual decline towards the sun, rising later each morning until it disappears into the dawn by July.
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