Can you see Venus from Earth?

[brida]

Sometimes in the morning you can see a white planet shape. My mother used to tell us it was Venus. Is this true or was it the moon?

[furrycheeky]

Its possible it was Venus as it is a bright morning object. Though you wouldn't be able to tell it was a planet, it just looks like a bright star.

[Loosehead]

Yes Venus is easily visible. Either just before sunrise or just after sun set . It is obvious as it's brighter than the Brightest star and moves against the back ground stars.

[mibn2cweus]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:// www.astrophys-assist.com/astrophot/moon-venus2 .jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.astrophys-assist.com /astrophot/moon-venus.htm&h=450&w=600&sz=47&hl =en&start=141&tbnid=k44LY_z9U-U09M:&tbnh=101&t bnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmoon%2Bvenus%26star t%3D140%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26l r%3Dlang_en%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

[mibn2cweus]

Observing Venus

[brida]

I think it was definitely the moon we were looking at. THanks for all of your help!

Bridget

[brachiopod]

I had to explain this to someone the other day.

Venus is often known as the 'Morning Star' or the 'Evening Star' depending on what stage of its orbit it is in.

Why is it only visible in either early morning or early evening? Well, being closer to the sun than the Earth in it's orbit, it is obvious that the observer must at least be partially 'facing' the sun.
During full daylight, the sun is far to bright and obscures the observation just as it does any other heavenly body (moon excepted).
For most of the night, by definition, the observer is 'facing' away from the sun.
So at certain times in its orbit, (the best time is when Venus is 'furthest' away from the sun to an observer from Earth looking along the plane of its orbit), the planet can be seen either as soon as the light from the sun diminishes sufficiently, until such time as it disappears from view behind the rotaing Earth (or visa versa if in the part of venus' orbit where it is visible from earth in the morning).

[Gef]

Err, the moon appears a lot bigger than venus.