On Mar 19, 11:04*am, "Jack )"
wrote:
Alex Deakin on BBC this morning commented that the nights are still
longer than the days. *Wrong! - as alluded to in this thread.

Slightly off topic. *Planet Venus is at inferior conjunction (between
Earth and Sun) on 27th March but due to orbital tilt, actually passes
not directly in line but some 8 degrees north of the sun. *For a few
days around that date, it will be both a morning AND an evening
"star". *Now wouldn't that have confused the ancients who, so it is
said, never realised that Hesperus and Vesperus were one and the same
object?

Jack

I have been watching Venus in the evening sky with 12X40
binoculars. It's best seen against as bright a sky as possible
consistent with being able to find it otherwise it is so bright as to
dazzle. It is now a very thin crescent with the horns pointing
vertically and is directly above the sun by about 17° (today),
decreasing by the day.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.