At 10:56:42 PM on Wednesday, March 12, 2003, Geraldine
Reinhardt wrote:
> The link (which is the second one) clearly states that
> Venus is the evening star and is brighter.
No, it doesn't. You are misinterpreting what it says. It
is not contrasting Venus as evening star with Venus as
evening star; it is merely noting that Venus is called the
evening star because, being brighter than the actual stars,
it is visible earlier in the evening than they are (when it
is visible in the evening at all). The authors could just
as well have said that it is called the morning star because
of its brightness: when it is the morning star, it is
visible later into the morning than the actual stars because
it is brighter than they are.
> Geometrically speaking I'm not up to speed, yet what I do
> know is that the position of Venus in relation to Earth
> changes over the yearly cycle.
Actually, it changes over a cycle that depends on both
earth's year and that of Venus.
> This should affect Venus's relationship to the sun (as
> well as to the earth).
What is relevant is the combined relationship of the three
bodies.
Brian