Planet shines bright in sky

COMING CLOSE: It looks like a little white dot, but it is actually the planet Venus framed by the moon above Whangarei yesterday morning. PHOTO/JEREMY ZELLERS

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.

It is also the brightest planet and third-brightest sky object overall, after the sun and moon.

Venus will be hard to miss in the early morning, especially in late October.

Venus, Mars and Jupiter all meet up in the last week of October to present the closest grouping of three planets until January of 2021.