It's baaack!

The glistening planet Venus has been noticeably absent from our early evening sky since last summer. It has spent most of that time on the opposite side of its orbit, rising and setting before the sun. But now it's back in the evening sky where most of us can enjoy its glistening light.

With the return of Venus will come no shortage of misconceptions about its true nature. Readers of this column hopefully won't fall prey to these, but you may encounter them in your interactions with other, less experienced, stargazers.

Perhaps the most common misconception is that the brilliant light of Venus is an approaching aircraft with its landing light on. If it doesn't eventually appear to move —and Venus won't — you can be sure it's not an aircraft. I suppose this is not a surprising error; even a World War II fighter pilot was fooled by this and actually fired on the planet.

He missed.

Another common fallacy is that it's the International Space Station. Of course, ISS orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, so it appears to drift gracefully across our sky. Venus doesn't. If you visit the website www.heavens-above.com you can predict the appearance of the real ISS in the sky.

Perhaps most puzzling to me is the notion that this brilliant light in the west is the North Star. Now I'm not sure exactly how one can reach this conclusion, except with no thought at all or, perhaps, by believing another fallacy — that the North Star is the brightest in the sky — it's actually only the 48th brightest. I guess the brilliance of Venus trumps its western location in some peoples' minds.

When you encounter such misconceptions — and I'm sure you will — be patient and take some time to explain what folks are actually seeing. Helping others enjoy the wonders of the night sky is a tremendously rewarding way of spending your time.

This week, Venus teams up with the elusive planet Mercury low in the western sky shortly after sunset. The solar system's two inner planets lie little more than 1 degree apart, and stargazers who watch the pair over the next week or so will see how the two will separate over that time.

And if you think Venus is brilliant now, just wait until springtime. By then the planet will appear nearly twice as bright!

To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.