Oslo, Norway
Venus tonight
Not well placed in tonight's sky from Oslo, Norway.
Computed for your location ·
Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. On dark nights it can cast faint shadows and is often mistaken for an aircraft or a UFO. It's either an 'evening star' (west after sunset) or a 'morning star' (east before sunrise), never both at once.
Tonight's altitude
Where Venus sits across the night
Where to look
Point yourself toward West
Right now, Venus is at azimuth 244° — that's West — and 27° above the horizon.
What it is
Venus in one paragraph
Roughly Earth's size in diameter (12,104 km vs Earth's 12,742 km), but a very different world. A thick CO₂ atmosphere traps heat: the surface is 465 °C, hot enough to melt lead. Sulphuric-acid clouds reflect 75% of sunlight — which is why Venus outshines every star.
Naked eye & binoculars
How to actually see it
You don't need dark skies. Look west just after sunset (evening apparitions) or east just before sunrise (morning apparitions). Venus is unmistakable — brighter than anything else in that part of the sky. Even in a twilight city, it's obvious.
Through a telescope
What you'll actually see in the eyepiece
A small telescope shows Venus going through phases like the Moon: crescent when it's between us and the Sun, gibbous when it's on the far side. Cloud detail is extremely hard to see — even Hubble struggles.
Key facts
Venus at a glance
- Distance from Sun
- 108 million km
- Diameter
- 12,104 km
- Year
- 225 Earth days
- Moons
- 0