# Venus is SO bright!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 28, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290 "2002-11-28T04:03:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290/1 "2002-11-28T04:03:02Z")

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Venus has been exceptionally bright this week.

Some possible factors:

1. It’s a morning apparition. So there is less thermal disturbance.

2. There is a huge dome of high pressure cold air over Oklahoma right now, resulting in amazingly clear, still skies.

3. Moon is far removed from Venus’ position in sky.

4. Venusians building large fires in upper atmosphere to signal overlords on Uranus.

5. OKC isn’t very bad in light pollution (for a million plus population city, anyways)

Ok, # 4 may not be exactly true.

Anyone else noticing this?

What is Venus’ apparant magnitude with the seeing conditions I described?

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**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290/2 "2002-11-28T04:07:45Z")

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Jupiter is pretty darn bright, too. Same reasons, except #'s 3 & 4.

And Saturn, not reason # 4.

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**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290/3 "2002-11-28T05:13:52Z")

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I like reason #4!

Found this at [www.skyandtelescope.com](http://www.skyandtelescope.com):

> [@](#):
>
> Venus (magnitude –4.6) is the bright “Morning Star” low in the southeast during dawn.

It’s in the “Sky at a Glance” section.

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**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290/4 "2002-11-28T05:28:55Z")

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Thanks, Rosebud, I had forgotten about the link buttons on that site.

Dec 1st looks neat! I’ll be up early to see that.

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venus-is-so-bright/139290/5 "2002-11-28T06:10:32Z")

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Out here on the desert, and maybe elsewhere, Venus is clearly visible in the daytime if you know where to look.