Beauty of Venus.—This planet has an expressive name, and it naturally leads us to expect that the object to which it is applied is a beautiful one. The observer will not be disappointed in this anticipation: he will find Venus the most attractive planet of our system. No such difficulties are encountered in finding Venus as in detecting Mercury; for the former recedes to a distance of 47° from the Sun, and sometimes remains visible 4½ hours after sunset, as in February 1889. But Venus owes her beauty not so much to favourable position as to surpassing lustre. None of the other planets can compare with her in respect to brilliancy. The giant planet Jupiter is pale beside her, and offers no parallel. Ruddy Mars looks faint in her presence, and does not assume to rivalry.

This planet alternately adorns the morning and evening sky, as she reaches her W. and E. elongations from the Sun. The ancients styled her Lucifer (“the harbinger of day”) when a morning star and Hesperus when an evening star.

Brilliancy.—Her brightness is such as to lead her to occasionally become a conspicuous object to the naked eye in daytime, and at night she casts a perceptible shadow.