If you are looking for holiday inspiration this week, take a look in the western sky after sunset. There is a Christmas “Star” in the heavens.

Actually it is the planet Venus, now making its appearance in our evening sky. Venus is brilliant. To the unknowing, Venus looks like an airplane approaching with its landing lights on. Or, if you are into Christmas, the planet looks like the Star over Bethlehem, or maybe the star over Vineyard Haven.

Venus will be with us well into the New Year, and our evening star from now to August. In the months ahead it will continue to get higher in our western sky. Venus will be highest from May into June.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It takes 224 of our Earth days for the planet to make one trip around the Sun. Mercury takes 88 days. In size, Venus is close to the size of our Earth, but what makes it so brilliant isn’t just the size or being close. Venus is surrounded permanently by cloud cover, which makes it highly reflective of sunlight.

On Monday night, look at the sky again. A thin crescent moon will appear right next to the brilliant planet.

Winter arrives on schedule on Sunday, at 6:03 p.m. Daylight is at a minimum, only slightly more than nine hours in length. Sunrise is after 7 a.m. and sunset is not long after 4 p.m. But seeing a change in the length of our day and night really won’t be noticeable until early in January.