Scientists generally issue a warning when Venus shines bright. They usually say something like: It’s not a UFO – it’s just the brightest planet shining brighter.

With eyes turned to the sky more than usual, Venus can startle those who normally don’t look up. Shortly after sunset, low in the west-southwest sky, you might notice Venus, which will be the brightest it has been in all of 2010.

Alan Boyle of MSNBC recently offered input for this in his Cosmic Log blog:

First, be aware that common objects can look uncommonly strange under the right conditions. It may sound ridiculous to suggest that Venus or Jupiter can be mistaken for flying spaceships, but there’s a perceptual trick known as the “autokinetic effect” that can make stationary objects in the sky appear to move.  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Yes, we mustn’t forget about Jupiter, also shining very bright. I had an outstanding opportunity to view Jupiter through my telescope on Friday night. It was a phenomenal view of the fifth planet from the sun!

As Joe Rao at Space.com also noted:

For many weeks, the planet that has dominated our evening sky has been brilliant Venus, visible low in the west-southwest sky for about 90 minutes after sunset. But after Venus sets, it is Jupiter that takes over for the rest of the night, outshining everything in the night sky but the moon.  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Enjoy gazing toward the skies tonight!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 19th, 2010 at 10:47 am and is filed under Life, UFOs. Tags for this post: science, UFO, ufo news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.