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Venus has been seen by countless civilizations with the naked eye due to the proximity to Earth and the luminosity. Despite this, it took until 1610 for Galileo Galilei to record the first accurate observation of Venus using a telescope. When he did so he noticed that, just like the moon, the planet had phases. With the geocentric model (Earth at the center of the solar system) still being dominant at the time, this helped bring more credibility to the Copernican view (Sun at the center of the solar system). The discovery of the thick atmosphere did not come until 1761 by the Russian Mikhail Lomonosov.
Venus has been seen by countless civilizations with the naked eye due to the proximity to Earth and the luminosity. Despite this, it took until 1610 for Galileo Galilei to record the first accurate observation of Venus using a telescope. When he did so he noticed that, just like the moon, the planet had phases. With the geocentric model (Earth at the center of the solar system) still being dominant at the time, this helped bring more credibility to the Copernican view (Sun at the center of the solar system). The discovery of the thick atmosphere did not come until 1761 by the Russian Mikhail Lomonosov.
Galileo Galilei using telescope to observe celestial bodies, Owlcation (2021)
Mikhail Lomonosov, Wikipedia (Portrait by G. Prenner, 1787)
Morning Star and Evening Star
Model of Venus and Earth, "Morning Star", Youtube.
Picture of Venus during morning, Pinterest.
Venus does not actually emit any of its own light and only reflects the light that comes from the Sun. Even still, it is the second brightest object in the night sky by cause of the high albedo (the ability of surfaces to reflect sunlight). Venus has an albedo of .7 which means that it reflects nearly 70% of the Sun's light. The Moon only has an albedo of .12 for reference but is much closer to earth so it seems much brighter. Due to its orbit and position relative to Earth, Venus can only be observed at sunrise and sunset due to Earth facing away from the Sun and Venus at night. Waiting until those times is necessary because that is when we are actually facing Venus and see the light that is reflected by Venus from the sun. Due to this special orbit Venus has in relation with Earth, it causes Venus to appear in the night sky at different times during the early morning and late afternoon which lead to both the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to believe that Venus was actually two different celestial bodies.
The Pentagram/Pedals of Venus
The path of Venus and earth
Earth and Venus have some striking similarities and this is not limited to the planet body's, but also their orbits. With Venus' orbit about 1.62 times faster than Earth's, every 8 earth years Venus will go almost exactly 13 times around the sun. When you plot the paths of these planets in relation to each other, a neat phenomenon starts to present itself. A neat flower is drawn and this has been named the 'Pentagram/Petals of Venus'. The pentagram part comes from that there are 5 sides or pedals to the shape and 'penta' means 5. Due to the orbital time it takes for Venus to do 13 laps is nearly the exact same for Earths 8 laps, the pattern is here to stay.
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