Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun after Mercury.
Venus is also one of the Twelve Gods in the Roman Pantheon, who was the Goddess of Love and Fertility, known to the Greeks as Aphrodite.

Venus is 95% the size of Earth and is sometimes considered to be its twin.
It is known as both the Morning Star and the Evening Star.
Venus revolves around the Sun in 224.7 Earth days, but rotates only once every 243 Earth days, making it the slowest rotating planet.
It rotates in the opposite direction to the other planets.
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System and the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon.
Galileo discovered that Venus has Phases, waxing and waning like the Moon.
Venus is covered with almost one thousand impact craters, of which the majority have remained unchanged since their creation.

Because Venus overtakes the Earth every 584 days, it changes from the Morning Star (visible after sunrise) to become the Evening Star (visible after sunset).

The Earth orbits the Sun eight times whilst Venus orbits the Sun thirteen times, after which Venus returns to almost exactly the same position in the night sky.
When the five consecutive Inferior Conjunctions of Venus are plotted on a diagram against the eight Earth year cycles, they form a Pentagram.

The Mayan Calendar starts on August 11 3114 BCE. They based their creation date and started their calendar on the first ever sighting of Venus.
In the 17th century BCE, the Babylonian Cuneiform Venus Tablet or Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa, records the rising times of Venus over a period of 21 years.
The Ancient Greeks thought Venus was two planets, the Morning Star ‘Phosphorus’ and the Evening star ‘Hesperus’.
In the 6th Century BCE, according to Pliny the Elder, Pythagorus realised both stars were Venus, Diogenes Laertius thought it was Parmenides.
The Romans then translated both Greek planets as ‘Lucifer’ the Morning star, and ‘Vesper’ the Evening star.
Mercury was also considered to be two stars. As the Morning star it was known as Apollo, and as the Evening star it was known as Mercury.

Historically, Venus has been the third most influential planet on Religion, Mythology and Astrology after the Sun and the the Moon.

The Inferior Planets
- Venus and Mercury orbit between the Sun and the Earth, and they are known as the ‘Inferior’ planets.
- When these planets are to the west of the Sun, they have a western Elongation and are known as ‘Morning’ Stars. When they have an eastern Elongation, they are known as ‘Evening’ stars.

The Superior Planets
- Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbit outside the Earth’s orbit and are known as the ‘Superior’ planets.
- When a ‘Superior’ planet is in the same position in the sky as the Sun, it is said to be in ‘Conjunction’. Whilst in ‘Conjunction’, it is said to be a ‘Morning star’.
- When a ‘Superior’ planet is opposite the Sun in the sky, it is said to be in ‘Opposition’. Whilst in ‘Opposition’, it is said to be an ‘Evening star’, rising when the Sun sets.

Because Venus is between the Earth and the Sun, it is only visible near the Horizon for up to three hours either before dawn or after sunset. It is not visible all year round.
When it is visible, it is the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon.
Venus is visible after sunset in the west between 200-290°.
And is visible before sunrise in the east, between 75-120°.