FOR the past few months we've been able to see both orange-red Mars and blue-white Jupiter blazing in the night sky.

Now, as March begins and the sky lightens, another old, familiar friend, is returning to our evening sky – Venus, the ‘Evening Star'.

Venus is a world roughly the same size as Earth, but very different.

Its atmosphere is poisonous; its rain is sulphuric acid, and the pressure on its surface is crushing.

Surface temperature? More than 400 deg C!

At the beginning of March Venus is still quite hard to see.

You need to go out just after sunset and find yourself somewhere with as flat a western horizon as possible; Venus is so low in the sky during dusk right now that any trees or tall buildings on your horizon might hide it.

But if your observing site lets you see the west without any clutter, you'll see a golden-hued ‘star’ shining steadily just above the horizon – Venus.