February 18, 2025: Venus gleams at its greatest brilliancy tonight after sunset. The Evening Star is part of the planet parade with Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:42 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:28 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Venus at Greatest Brilliancy
Venus shines at its greatest brilliancy this evening. It is that bright star in the southwestern sky after sundown. The Evening Star is the brightest starlike body in the sky tonight, competing with bright airplane lights, and frequently mistaken as a craft from another world.
Tonight’s brightest point is predicted by NASA’s JPL Horizon Systems. Frequently, the night of the greatest illuminated extent is used as the greatest brilliancy date, which occurred four nights ago. Greatest illuminated Extent is when the planet’s phase looks biggest and occurs near the brightest view. Regardless of the date, the planet is exceedingly bright and during the last several evenings, the eye cannot perceive the brightness difference as it peaks.
Telescopic View
Through a telescope, the planet shows a crescent phase, 25% illuminated. It looks very similar to a waxing crescent moon with its horns pointed eastward away from the sun, though the phase shrinks as the planet overtakes Earth.
While the phase looks like a waxing crescent moon, the planet phases occur in a cycle that is different from our lunar neighbor. When in the evening sky, waxing and waning are not used. Rather evening replaces the phase name, such as evening gibbous or evening waxing phase. Similarly, morning is used when the planet is visible before sunrise, such as morning crescent or morning half-moon.
Venus is overtaking Earth. It passes between our world and the sun in about a month and races into the eastern sky before sunrise. Tonight, its distance is 37 million miles. At inferior conjunction on March 22nd, Venus closes to 26 million miles, 109 times the moon’s average distance.
Evening Planet Parade
Venus is part of the evening planet parade. Find it about one-third of the way up in the west-southwest and 20° above Saturn.
The Ringed Wonder is sliding into brighter twilight. Tonight at 45 minutes after sundown, it is less than 10° above the horizon. In several nights it is not visible. Earth’s atmosphere near the horizon dims and blurs celestial bodies.
Jupiter is the third bright planet in tonight’s parade. It is high in the south-southeast, while Mars is over halfway up in the east.
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