THERE are two really bright planets on view in the evening sky at the moment, writes STUART ATKINSON. They might look similar to the eye but in reality they couldn't be more different.

As soon as it starts to get dark you'll notice a silvery spark of light glinting in the twilight sky to the north west. This is Venus, second planet out from the Sun, currently appearing as the Evening Star. As twilight deepens and the sky darkens you'll see how Venus gets brighter and brighter until it really is a striking sight. When you're looking at that bright light, you're actually looking across more than 200 million kilometres of space at a world the same size as Earth but very different. On Venus it rains acid, and the clouds are so thick they trap the Sun's heat like greenhouse glass, raising the surface temperature to almost 500 degrees C.

With the sky dark, turn your back on Venus and you'll see another bright star shining low in the south east. This is the planet Jupiter, not as bright as Venus but still very striking. Jupiter is a huge planet, 12 times wider than Earth, and is made of gases and liquids with an Earth-sized core. It has 69 moons, and you can see some of them through binoculars, looking like tiny stars.