What is this huge bright star I'm seeing every morning?

First post!
Cool site here!!!
Anyhoo, I wake up every morning about 5:30am (I'm in Baltimore) and I'm out the door off to work at about 6:00am. It's still dark out (although it's just starting to lighten up a tad). For the last 2 weeks (maybe??), when I walk outside if the sky is crystal clear I see this very big, big, bright star in the East (a little north), and the weird thing is no other stars are visible in the sky at all. A couple mornings the moon was up there with it (to the far right), but I only saw the huge star this morning...nothing else. I don't ever remember seeing a star like this stick out in the morning. It's actually still visible when the light starts coming up (it's that bright).

Is this Venus? I read somewhere it was showing itself recently.
I've never seen a star this bright, so regularly.

Does anyone around here know what it is?

yes it is Venus. It is quite prominent in the morning sky right now.

I live here in Virginia. I know there is an evening star, and I guess there is a morning star, correct? I think maybe the evening star and morning star are the same star?

Anyway, I don't know if this is what you are seeing. And you do say you don't remember seeing it.

I hope some other folks could help shed some light on this.

Troy

Cool! It's so big, it kinda creeped me out when I first saw it.
Somebody else posted a pic around here of a sunspot. Would it be possible Venus floated in front of the sun from our view i that pic?
Pardon me for any ignorance here.

I have to say, I live in CA and I have noticed a big bright star in the sky that I have never seen so illuminated. Does Venus get brighter through its galactic journey?

A Spectacular Transit of Venus across the Sun took place June 8th 2004, there are several photos of this transit on the internet. The next transit will take place in 2012 around June 6th if I remember correctly.

Venus, like the moon, goes through phases and will appear brighter during it's full phase. Also atmospheric conditions can alter the the preception of brightness of all celestial objects.

Venus.. and yes, it's the "morning star" and "evening star."

Venus the planet doesn't travel through the galaxy, but rather around the sun since it's one of our inner planets. Because it travels around the sun much faster than the Earth does, it sometimes appears in front of the sun ("morning star") or in back of the sun "evening star."

Hopefully I can remember enough of this to answer your questions (I learned it a long time ago)

Yes, Venus is known as both the morning star and the evening star.

No, it cannot be mistaken for a sunspot if it passes between us and the sun, nor will it cause an eclipse.

There are a couple resons for how it is so bright, it is the 3rd brightest object in our sky, after the sun and moon, and can be seen even when the sun is slightly above the horizon.

One reason is that it is the closest celestial object to us after the moon, at times coming within 45 million miles. The other reason is extremely high albedo (reflectivity). Venus itself is obscured by a very dense cloud cover, which is highly reflective. It is also only a little smaller than the earth, and somewhat closer to the sun.

I was too lazy to go link hunting, but there's plenty of information out there.

What is this huge bright star I'm seeing every morning?

The Sun!!!

[/idiot reply]

Sorry, couldn't resist

No, Venus is behind the sun when full phase.

Venus is the brightest when it is at its least phase because it is the closest to Earth...so even though Venus is just a sliver of light, it is still more brilliant than when it is further away and is a half-phase or near-full phase.

Thanks Byrd, I just didn't know Venus was the morning and evening star. This is, I guess the bright star you see first at night and last in the morning.

Troy