The only astronomical object most of us notice in the daytime sky is our star, the Sun. Its light makes the sky bright, which overpowers the other stars and almost everything else. But there are a couple of exceptions: the Moon and the planet Venus.

During its 29-and-a-half-day cycle of phases, the Moon spends half of its time in the daytime sky – the hours between sunrise and sunset. But it’s so pale compared to the Sun that it can be hard to notice.

That’s especially true when the Moon is in its crescent phase, as it is now. At dawn tomorrow, the Sun will light up only about one-eighth of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way. So the Sun will look millions of times brighter than the Moon.

As twilight begins, the Moon will continue to dominate the sky. But as twilight gets brighter, the Moon will appear to fade. It’s still just as bright, but against the daytime sky it’s hard to see. But you can still spot it, leading the Sun across the sky.

At dawn, Venus stands to the lower right of the Moon. It’s the brilliant “morning star.” Until sunrise, only the Moon outshines it. Venus also fades into the blue of the daytime sky. But it is visible to the unaided eye. It leads the Moon up the sky in the morning, and down the sky in the afternoon. It’s hard to find, but once you see it, you’ll wonder why you never noticed it before – a bright planet shining through the bright blue sky.

Script by Damond Benningfield