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Old Yesterday, 18:43
An Thropologist
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Yes, that is correct.
Thank you. Is it my imagination or is it bigger and brighter than usual? I first saw it through trees when out walking a couple of nights ago and actually thought it was a light on a crane or similar. I don't think it is usually so big and bright is it?
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Old Yesterday, 22:22
WhatJoeThinks
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Thank you. Is it my imagination or is it bigger and brighter than usual? I first saw it through trees when out walking a couple of nights ago and actually thought it was a light on a crane or similar. I don't think it is usually so big and bright is it?
Brighter, but not bigger.

Like the Moon, Venus goes through phases, waxing and waning from a thin crescent to a full disk, etc., but unlike the Moon, which stays at roughly the same distance from the Earth, the distance to Venus changes dramatically. When it's full it's near the far side of the Sun, so pretty tiny to look at. At it's closest approach to the Earth it's much bigger but only illuminated on the far side. At the moment Venus is almost at a right angle between the Earth and the Sun, so not quite as big as it can get but it is as bright as it gets. As it continues to get closer over the coming months the angle of illumination will drop off, sort of thing.

Not the best explanation I've ever given. You'll have to just imagine my arms flapping about, trying to describe the orbits. ...This might help.
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Old Yesterday, 22:27
WhatJoeThinks
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Source of mysterious deep space radio wave discovered for the first time

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...MCNEWEML6619I2
Fascinating stuff. What do you think they are? I have a feeling that it's nascent black holes coalescing or feeding on neutron stars.

"FRBs flash only for an micro-instant, and can emit as much energy in a millisecond as the sun does in 10,000 years."
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Old Today, 01:42
Keyser_Soze1
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As I have said before this site is the one of the very best for up to date astronomy news.

http://phys.org/space-news/
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Old Today, 01:57
An Thropologist
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Brighter, but not bigger.

Like the Moon, Venus goes through phases, waxing and waning from a thin crescent to a full disk, etc., but unlike the Moon, which stays at roughly the same distance from the Earth, the distance to Venus changes dramatically. When it's full it's near the far side of the Sun, so pretty tiny to look at. At it's closest approach to the Earth it's much bigger but only illuminated on the far side. At the moment Venus is almost at a right angle between the Earth and the Sun, so not quite as big as it can get but it is as bright as it gets. As it continues to get closer over the coming months the angle of illumination will drop off, sort of thing.

Not the best explanation I've ever given. You'll have to just imagine my arms flapping about, trying to describe the orbits. ...This might help.
Thank you for this. I hadn't thought of Venus as having phases. In fact I hadn't thought about it at all before now, but it stands to reason that the reflection of the sun will manifest itself on bodies other than the earth and moon. Presumably Venus rotates on its own axis and orbits around the sun at its own pace which is different to that of the earth, thus creating many computations of positions relative to the earth.
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Old Today, 02:21
WhatJoeThinks
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Thank you for this. I hadn't thought of Venus as having phases. In fact I hadn't thought about it at all before now, but it stands to reason that the reflection of the sun will manifest itself on bodies other than the earth and moon. Presumably Venus rotates on its own axis and orbits around the sun at its own pace which is different to that of the earth, thus creating many computations of positions relative to the earth.
That is correct. Both Venus and Mercury, from our point of view, can be seen orbiting the Sun, waxing and waning as they go. The calculation is actually very simple; they just go around and around. Planets that orbit further from the Sun than the Earth does are a different story. From our perspective they are always well illuminated, whether they are at the far side of the Sun or at the same side as us, but their apparent orbits (as seen from Earth) are a lot less straightforward, sometimes appearing to reverse their direction for short periods.
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