Of all the planets lovely Venus is the one that is best known and
most admired. It far exceeds all the other planets in brilliancy and
beauty when as an evening star it hangs in gracious silvery softness
above the sun, which has just passed below the horizon; and it is not
less surpassing in loveliness when as a morning star it comes into
view shortly before the sun rises, its glowing face still silvery and
bright, but yet tinged with the rosy flush of the eastern morning sky.
In either position it never twinkles as Mercury sometimes does, but
shines so steadily and softly that at times its disc can almost be
seen with the naked eye, and it has such brilliancy that its light can
often be seen in the daytime, if one knows when and how to look for the
planet. At its brightest it frequently throws a light sufficiently
strong to cast a shadow, as one may easily prove by holding a book or
some other opaque object between Venus and a white background, such as
the wall of a white house. It is six times as bright as the brightest
of all the fixed stars, Sirius, the beautiful dog-star, which we see in
winter chasing across the southern skies after Orion.
Venus’s superior brilliancy is due in part to the fact that it comes
nearer to the earth than any other planet; but it is also intrinsically
brighter than any of the others. From equal areas it reflects almost
four times as much light as Mercury and three times as much as Mars.