Venus: as high as it gets!

Venus has reached its maximum eastern elongation: it is as high in the early evening sky as it ever gets. It is a beautiful sight: no wonder it held a special place in the mythologies of the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. Of course, they didn't know that the reflective white atmosphere that makes the planet such a brilliant object is made up of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid, nor that the surface temperature is around 900 degrees!