Unfortunately, Venus’ path through the sky is a bit more complicated than that. This autumn, Earth’s neighbor shines brilliantly in the west after sunset. It reaches its greatest elongation from the Sun — its greatest angular distance from the Sun on the sky — on November 1, when it lies 47° east of our star. The planet grows brighter as it falls back toward the Sun in our sky, reaching its peak in early December. This “evening star” then shines at magnitude –4.9 — some 25 times brighter than the night sky’s brightest star, Sirius.
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