Venus

Venus' adornment alongside the moon in the western sky this spring will soon be no longer. Wednesday will be the last time this year that the crescent moon and the yellow planet will pair up with each other this year. Look to the west at dusk tonight and Wednesday - if you look early enough with the naked eye or binoculars, you can make out Venus' crescent shape before it becomes too bright to discern. According to EarthSky.org , you should also be able to see earthshine, a faint glow on the dark portion of the moon, from light reflecting back from Earth toward the moon.

Venus' adornment alongside the moon in the western sky this spring will soon be no longer. Wednesday will be the last time this year that the crescent moon and the yellow planet will pair up with each other this year. Look to the west at dusk tonight and Wednesday - if you look early enough with the naked eye or binoculars, you can make out Venus' crescent shape before it becomes too bright to discern. According to EarthSky.org , you should also be able to see earthshine, a faint glow on the dark portion of the moon, from light reflecting back from Earth toward the moon.

A twice-in-a-lifetime celestial event is coming up in June, and on Tuesday, the Space Telescope Science Institute is providing a chance to learn more about it ahead of time. A monthly public lecture will focus on the transit of Venus, in which the planet will pass directly in front of the sun. During a transit, planets can be seen as a small black dot moving across the face of the sun. Of course, as with eclipses and other solar phenomena, they should not be viewed directly. In North America, the transit will be visible at sunset June 5. Look for more coverage here as the event gets closer.

A twice-in-a-lifetime celestial event is coming up in June, and on Tuesday, the Space Telescope Science Institute is providing a chance to learn more about it ahead of time. A monthly public lecture will focus on the transit of Venus, in which the planet will pass directly in front of the sun. During a transit, planets can be seen as a small black dot moving across the face of the sun. Of course, as with eclipses and other solar phenomena, they should not be viewed directly. In North America, the transit will be visible at sunset June 5. Look for more coverage here as the event gets closer.

It has been hard not to notice Venus and Jupiter twinkling in the western sky on all the pleasant, clear nights we've had. The view is about to get a little more spectacular. The crescent moon begins to peek out tonight, and over the next several nights will provide some drama in the sky alongside the bright planets. Look just above the western horizon at dusk to find them. Venus is the higher planet, and Jupiter the lower. If you have a decent backyard telescope, you should even be able to see Jupiter's four largest moons orbiting the gaseous giant.

Kristin Weisman loves a look that's "kind of bohemian, but at the same time, really feminine. I like girly things that have a little funk to them." Her style mirrors her professional life. The 30-year-old Parkville resident is an English teacher at Kenwood High School, a part-time burlesque performer with the Gilded Lily troupe, and a part-time yoga instructor. We "glimpsed" Weisman at another of her part-time gigs — as a hostess at Hampden's hip Rocket to Venus restaurant — in a navy rayon Sine romper and a wide segmented brown leather belt — both from Anthropologie.

With a little luck, scientists and engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt will help to send a NASA spacecraft to land on an asteroid or on Venus late in this decade. The two proposed interplanetary missions with Goddard connections were among three selected Monday to receive $3.3 million each for further cost and feasibility study under NASA's New Frontiers program. Only one will be funded after a final cut later this year. The winning mission would have to launch by 2018, and cost less than $650 million.

On July 3, 2003, VENUS, beloved mother of Charles Stanley, Venus Vaughn and Mitchel Davis. She is also survived by five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, two sisters, Louise White and Virginia Rogers and other relatives. Friends may call at the James A. Morton & Sons Funeral Homes, Inc., 1701 Laurens Street, Thursday 2 to 7 P.M. On Friday 10 A.M, Mrs. Cox will lie in state at People's Church of Baltimore, 230 N. Fulton Avenue. The family will receive friends 10:30 to 11 A. M followed by services.

On May 19, 2009 VENUS W. HARRIS; wife of Bobby Harris. She is also survived by her loving daughter, Vina Welch; parents, Gloria and Van Welch; sisters, Linda Green and Carolyn Welch; niece, Kim Welch and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may visit the family owned March Funeral Home, West, 4300 Wabash Avenue, on Friday after 1 p.m. Family will receive friends on Saturday at St. Mark's Institutional Church, 655 N. Bentalou at 9:30 a.m. followed by Funeral Service at 10.

What a statement: "We probably have a better global map of Venus now than we have of Earth, because most of the ocean basins on Earth are so poorly mapped." That's from Dr. Stephen Saunders, chief scientist on the Magellan project, which is surveying Earth's nearest neighbor by radar.The first pictures from that radar imaging experiment, 14 months in the making, are stunning: Five-mile-high Maat Mons, only the second highest peak on the planet, surrounded by lava flows. Two-mile Gula Mons, small by Venusian standards, dominating a plain on which is stamped Crater Cunitz, named for astronomer Maria Cunitz.

She was dragged, tossed, handcuffed, and, she says, repeatedly called a "bitch," according to news reports. In her own words, she was "brutally abused. " At the time of the incident, Venus Green was also 87 years old. Recently, at age 90, Mrs. Green received an out-of-court settlement for her troubles from Baltimore City for $95,000. The settlement for the indignity is not the point of this commentary; rather, it is the repetition of such indignities and violence on the bodies of people of African descent, and Africana women in particular — not just by people of other ethnic groups but also by members of our own communities.

It has been hard not to notice Venus and Jupiter twinkling in the western sky on all the pleasant, clear nights we've had. The view is about to get a little more spectacular. The crescent moon begins to peek out tonight, and over the next several nights will provide some drama in the sky alongside the bright planets. Look just above the western horizon at dusk to find them. Venus is the higher planet, and Jupiter the lower. If you have a decent backyard telescope, you should even be able to see Jupiter's four largest moons orbiting the gaseous giant.

Sky-watchers got a beautiful show last month, with the crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter decorating the western horizon at nightfall. There is more ahead. Venus and Jupiter continue to grow closer to each other and more spectacular on the horizon. Look to the west after sunset tonight; by late next week, the planets will be 3 degrees apart, according to EarthSky.org. The waxing crescent moon will return to join them by the end of the month. Read more about the opportunities for stargazing this month in this post at EarthSky .

Take a haunted tour guided by 'Norman Bates' at Hitchcock after Dark , Saturday, Oct. 22, 8-10 p.m., Riverfront Park at end of Avondale Street. This fundraiser is presented by Venus Theatre, 21 C St. Tours also available Saturday, Oct. 29. Two nights only with four tours, half mile each, one starting at 8 p.m. and one at 9 p.m. each of the Saturdays. Enjoy s'mores, fall beverages, Hitchy costume contest and outdoor move, "The Birds!" Best Hitchcock costume wins door prize. Wear comfortable shoes and bring flashlight and movie watching blanket.

Venus Theatre, 21 C St., presents the world premiere of "The Stenographer" on Friday, Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. Written by Zoe Mavroudi, of Athens, Greece, and directed by Venus Theatre founder Deborah Randall, the drama, set in a suburban house in a college town near New York, presents an internal storm where integrity clashes with philosophical rationalizations, alcohol and literary analysis. Play runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through September.

NEW YORK — It wasn't the final point of the match, the winning forehand from Kim Clijsters that couldn't be chased down by a dispirited and slow-footed Venus Williams, that brought 23,000 people to their feet at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday. That was just about expected because second-seeded and defending champion Clijsters had gained such momentum from another shot, a luxurious lob that sailed just beyond the racket of Williams and skipped off the baseline as Williams waved her racket helplessly.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- In a jewel of a match, Venus Williams staked a bold claim on the future of women's tennis.For a set and a half last night, the 14-year-old Williams dominated Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the U.S. Open and French Open champion, more thoroughly than any player this year except Steffi Graf.Sanchez Vicario came back from a 1-6 first-set loss to Graf in the U.S. Open final, and this time she found herself trailing 2-6, 1-3 to a tall, lanky kid she had never seen before and couldn't quite figure out.It mattered not that Williams eventually tired and lost 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the second-round match at the Bank of the West tournament.

The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft returned the first images of the planet's south pole yesterday, revealing a tempestuous sky of sulfuric acid clouds whipped by winds moving faster than 200 mph. Scientists have been hampered from peering into Venus' atmosphere because of a thick haze enshrouding the planet. But the spacecraft's infrared and visible cameras were able to capture two slices of the atmosphere at 34 miles and 40 miles above the surface. "We have been able to see the top 1 percent of the atmosphere," said Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

NEW YORK — It is a question that makes Venus Williams weary. Her eyes drop, her shoulders tighten. She is here at the U.S. Open — which begins Monday — a 30-year-old having won seven Grand Slams, and she does not want to talk about the starkness of this bit of information: Williams is the only American among the 32 women's seeds. Melanie Oudin, the bubbly teenager who giggled as she ran through the 2009 U.S. Open, shoving aside higher-rated, harder-hitting players with no evidence of nerves until she was halted in the quarterfinals by eventual runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, has won only a single match at the three majors this year.

WIMBLEDON, England — Serena Williams straightened out a very crooked women's Wimbledon quarterfinal Tuesday. It was only top-seeded and defending champion Serena's uncomplicated 7-5, 6-3 win over ninth-seeded Li Na that made sense. Tsvetana Pironkova, a Bulgarian ranked 82nd in the world, considered herself surprised to have eliminated second-seeded and five-time champion Venus Williams 6-2, 6-3. It was a thorough and unexpected beating and more surprising even than the exit of defending U.S. Open champion and eighth-seeded Kim Clijsters, who was put out by 21st-seeded Vera Zvonareva 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. In the fourth quarterfinal, Kaia Kanepi avoided becoming the first Estonian woman to make the semifinals by failing to convert any of five match points and losing 4-6, 7-6 (8)