DESKTOP 1790 - VENUS, MOON, SUN

Except for the Sun, the Moon and Venus are the two brightest objects in the sky. You just can’t miss them. Astronomers measure relative brightness of objects in the sky with a term called magnitude.

The Sun has the highest magnitude of any object in the sky, at -26.73 apparent magnitude. The brightness of the Moon, for comparison, has a magnitude of -12.6. These numbers are done on a logarithmic scale. So the brightness of the Sun is actually 449,000 times brighter than the full moon. The maximum brightness of Venus is -4.7 magnitude, which is a fraction of the brightness of the Moon (and the Sun!).

Here is a composite image of Venus, the crescent moon and the sun, setting.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday.