Venus the brightest star lighting the Moon’s crescent

The bright evening star Venus will reach its greatest brightness on Tuesday, April 28, as the first planet to make a close approach to the crescent moon. This is ranked as the third-brightest Celestial object to light the sky after the Sun and Moon.

The moment of conjunction occurs at 15:23 GMT and you can spot them above the southwestern horizon after sunset. The moon will be about 6 degrees south of Venus I the constellation of Taurus, the bull. Venus is currently the second brightest object in the night sky, second only to the Moon. On Tuesday night the planet will appear to shine more than nine times brighter than its brightest planetary competitor, Jupiter, and it will outshine Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s night sky, by at least 20 fold.

After this week the bright evening star will slowly start to dim again before the planet disappears in the Sun’s glare at the end of May. It will, however, reappear in early June as a morning star.