The Evening Star

[tsom]

Look outside the moon now, the Evening Star is next to it! If you've seen "The Princess and the Frog," then you know what to do!

[Disney Duster]

I looked last night, and I didn't see the moon! I don't know how I couldn't see it, but I walkd up and down the street and couldn't see it. I guess I should have walked farther until I did. I saw stars but I don't think any of them was the evening star beause they weren't next to the moon.

How did they decide it was the evening star? Is it always any star next to the moon?

[tsom]

My friend texted me about it and I kept seeing it between 9 and 11 (Eastern time). I didn't see it after 12.

It was a very bright star that was next to a half moon. It was pretty cool!

[SpringHeelJack]

How did they decide it was the evening star? Is it always any star next to the moon?

The Evening Star is not a star, it's Venus when particularly visible at night. Likewise, when it's there in the morning before sunrise, it's the Morning Star.

[Disney Duster]

Thank you! Though I thought you could also call planets stars. For real. Like, planets are stars in one way. But then we'd be on a star. Cool?

[SpringHeelJack]

Thank you! Though I thought you could also call planets stars. For real. Like, planets are stars in one way.

Well... not really. Stars have a fusion reaction going off in their core, which is what gives them that light / heat business, along with the all the other ultraviolet waves and such. Planets are more stable, even when they're large and gaseous (i.e. even Jupiter doesn't have enough mass to create the reactions necessary to become a star).

[Disney Duster]

Other than showing off your smarts, I mean didn't they call planets stars back in the day, and it is used as a kind of romantic term for them today?

[SpringHeelJack]

Iffffff it's a romantic term for a planet it's not one I've ever heard of. And I mean, there was the wandering star thing, but that was like ancient Greece, so it's not really something you call the planets nowadays accurately. It'd be kind of like blaming the witches for the lousy weather.