If you have noticed an extra bright star before sunrise recently, you have spotted the ‘Morning Star’… aka Venus!

Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon and reaches its greatest brilliance at the beginning of February. Our neighbouring planet is always alternately the evening star or, as at present, the morning star for a few months.

But what appears to the naked eye as a brilliantly bright star turns out to be a glistening bright crescent when viewed through a telescope:

Like the moon, Venus also goes through phases in which it appears as an almost full disk, half full or only as a narrow crescent. The reason for this change is Venus' rapidly changing position in relation to the Sun.

At present, it is close to the Earth and therefore looks like a bright crescent moon in the telescope. At this angle the planet reflects a lot of sunlight towards us from its dense cloud cover.

When Venus moves away from Earth - as it is currently doing - it is always visible as the "morning star" in the morning sky. As it does so, its planetary disk gradually becomes smaller and its crescent shape becomes fuller.

For now, Venus will appear as the morning star until around October before reappearing as the evening star in the winter.

To spot this astronomical visual for yourself, look towards the eastern horizon as the Sun begins to rise around dawn. When the time comes for the evening star you should look to the western horizon at sunset.