Northlanders noticing a bright light in the early morning sky might be surprised to find out it is the planet Venus.
Whangarei's Jeremy Zellers captured this image of Venus framed by our moon about 6.30am yesterday while looking east towards Pataua North.
Mr Zellers, by day an integration manager at Northpower and at night a volunteer telescope operator for Planetarium North, at Maunu, took this picture on a Fuji Finepix S camera with a 40X zoom lens and tripod.
He lives halfway between Whareora and Pataua North and said yesterday morning was the closest Venus came to the moon in this cycle, but the planet would be visible in the sky above Northland for a while longer.
Venus is the brightest object in the east before sunrise.