Venus CBeebies Stargazing

Soon starlight will scatter through the dark

so let's all look up at Stargazing Park.

Hello, Stargazers.

Now, last night, we tried to spot tiny dots of light in the sky.

Satellites. Well, there's lots more in the night sky to spot,

so let's all... Ready? ..look up.

# When the night falls

# Maggie helps us see wonders of the stars above us all

# Turn the lights low Grab a cosy rug

# Wrap up warm and snug

# Here we go

# We're going stargazing

# Gaze at stars shining bright

# We're going stargazing

# Spot a zooming satellite

# We're going stargazing

# Glimpse the moon and the planets above

# We're going stargazing

# So just look up Look up, look up. #

Come and join us underneath the stars.

-Hi, Chris. Hi, Stargazers.

-Hi, Maggie.

-CHILDREN:

-Hi, Maggie.

Welcome to the Stargazing Park. Now, what can we see up there?

-Stars.

-Lots of stars.

-What's the brightest thing we can see out there?

-That one over there.

-Yeah, I'd agree.

That's the brightest star I can see.

There's lots of things to see in the dark sky tonight,

but now I want to show you something much brighter. Follow me. This way.

Is that what you wanted us to see over there, Maggie? Look up there.

Can you see that bright star?

That's not a star. That's a planet.

How about that? You can see a planet from here!

Who else can see a planet in the night sky?

-It's Mr Bloom!

-Hey, hello! We're looking for a bright planet.

-Now, can you remember what that bright planet was called?

-Venus.

Venus, that's right, cos earlier on Margaret took us on a tour.

-Ahem, a MAGNIFICENT tour!

-Oh, sorry, Margaret.

Yes, it was a magnificent tour of the Solar System.

So why don't you zoom by later and join us?

The bright planet Venus. So is that what we can see, Maggie?

Yes, that's Venus and it looks absolutely beautiful.

Venus is about the same size as Earth,

so it's almost like our sister planet.

-What's it like ON Venus?

-Ah, that's quite interesting,

cos it looks beautiful from here but it's about 400 degrees C,

so hotter than the oven we use at home.

-So, like, four times hotter than an oven that you cook a pizza in?

-Yep.

-My goodness me, that IS hot!

-Why is it so bright?

Well, it's bright because... Hold on a second.

-Maggie, why is it so bright?

-I think this calls for an experiment.

-Let's go to the Stargazing Cafe.

-Oh, yes!

-This way.

-Good, good!

So we're going to try and find out why the planet Venus is so bright.

To do that, I think the best way is to compare two different planets,

-so does anyone know what Mars looks like? Tabitha.

-It's red.

That's right. Red and dusty.

So this is Mars in a jar.

And you can see below we've got red rocks.

Up above we haven't got very much at all really.

Now, we want to compare that with the planet Venus.

It is quite grey, but up above it's quite cloudy.

It's got quite a thick atmosphere.

This is Venus in the jar.

And above the rocks of Venus,

there is lots of clouds and that's a nice thick atmosphere.

Chris, if you could dim the lights, you can see something quite amazing.

Let's take Mars first of all.

Pretend this is the Sun, nice and bright.

If I shine the light through Mars, you can see a little bit,

but you don't see that much.

What do you think's going to happen with Venus?

It's going to light up the atmosphere and light up Venus more.

Let's see.

-Does that look brighter? ALL:

-Yes.

I think it does too. It looks brighter than Mars.

That's why Venus is so bright.

It's got all that atmosphere and cloud above it,

and it makes it really bright.

So the thick cloud, the atmosphere surrounding Venus,

being lit by the Sun is what makes it look so bright?

-That's right, Chris.

-Thank you, Maggie.

Come on, let's see if we can spot the bright planet Venus.

Let's see if we can spot bright Venus through the window.

I'm looking through my window for a different planet.

It's called Saturn.

It's a big ball of gas with lots of rings around it.

Now, Saturn is far, far away from planet Earth

but a spacecraft called Cassini took some beautiful pictures of it.

Take a look.

The rings around Saturn are made up of ice and rock

spinning very, very fast around the planet.

And if you look really carefully you can see a tiny dot.

It looks like a star but it's actually our own planet Earth,

far, far away from Saturn.

Whoa, how tiny does planet Earth look from Saturn?

The Solar System is an enormous place.

Let's find out more about it from Margaret, the cabbage, and Mr Bloom.

Zoom!

Ahem, welcome to the first stop

on Margaret's magnificent tour of the Solar System.

Margaret, we can't keep up with you when you're in your Veggie Voyager.

-She's very quick, isn't she?

-It is a rather speedy spaceship, isn't it?

-Ooh, hey, look at this. What do you think this might be?

-The Sun.

The Sun, that's right, and look at it, it's enormous, isn't it?

-Did you know that the Sun is actually a star?

-Well, I never.

You do know a lot about space, don't you, Margaret?

Oh, thank you, Mr Bloom. Do you know which planet is closest to the Sun?

-Mercury.

-Mercury, that's right!

-Yes! And it's tiny.

-Shall we see if we can find Mercury?

-There.

-Ah, there it is.

-Look, it's so small.

-It's next to my favourite planet, Venus.

Venus is the brightest planet.

Why don't we shine your torches at Venus and make it really bright?

Making Venus the brightest planet in the Solar System.

Ahem, next on the tour is a planet we know very well.

-So it's blue and it's green. What planet is this?

-Earth!

-Earth, and who lives on Earth?

-Us!

Yeah, that's where we live.

-Look, there's a red planet next door.

-Mars!

-You think that's Mars?

That's right. Now this looks to be rather a large planet.

-Do you know what the largest planet is in the Solar System?

-Jupiter.

Jupiter, yeah. Where does it need to go?

-Well, it needs to go all the way over there.

-Over there?

-Right, what, over here?

-No, further.

-Further? What, over here?

-No, no, no, further.

-My, oh, my.

-It needs to go all the way right over there.

-Over there?

-Yes. Let's zoom.

ZOOM!

This is the perfect place for hanging a giant Jupiter,

-what do you reckon?

-BOTH:

-Yes!

Yeah. All right, let's get it out the bag. You hold that. Here we go.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

There's one giant bird feeder for the birds.

Oh, next stop Saturn. Let's ZOOOOM!

Right then. Come on, Stargazers. After her!

-Hi, Margaret.

-Hello!

Hey, Stargazers, look.

-We're a long way from the Sun now, aren't we?

-Right by Saturn.

-What has Saturn got that Margaret's forgotten?

-BOTH:

-The rings!

-Yeah, that's right. What have I got in my bag?

-Stones.

-Some stones.

So do you reckon we could use these stones to make rings around Saturn?

-BOTH:

-Yes!

Saturn's rings are made by lots of rocks spinning round it

really, really, really, really fast.

Let's ZOOOOOM!

-Found you, Margaret.

-Ah, now that is one tired out cabbage.

-Look, she's having a little rest.

-Boo!

I'm not having a rest, I'm being Uranus, the planet on its side.

Let's zoom. ZOOOOOM!

-Oh, here we are.

-Yes, we've made it to the edge of the Solar System.

Oh no, where's Neptune?

Neptune, I've got Neptune.

Here it is. Ta-dah!

WIND BLOWS

Whoa!

Sorry, Mr Bloom, I forgot to mention it's very windy on Neptune.

-Oh, Mr Bloom.

-So, go on, let's put Neptune in here.

-Who would like to go back to Earth?

-Me!

-Me!

-Me, me, me, me!

-All right, well we'll see you back there, Margaret, OK?

-OK. Let's zoom.

Oh, oh no!

-My Veggie Voyager is all out of zoom.

-Oh, no.

Well, don't you worry, my little gem, cos I've got a plan. Come on.

Follow me, Stargazers.

And here we are. We're just in time for the Stargazer Shuttle.

This is going to get us home in now time so, come on, let's get aboard.

Next stop, Earth!

That was a magnificent tour of the Solar System, Margaret.

There are so many things out there.

Rocky planets, gassy planets and billions of stars.

Come on, let's join the Stargazers for another Starlight Story.

# Starlight scattered through the dark

# Painting stories for us all

# Gather underneath the stars

# And hear their wonders told

# Looking up into the dark

# The night is yours and it is mine

# Looking up into the dark

# The dark upon us all

# Upon us all the stars will shine

# Upon us all the stars

# Will shine. #

Look up there!

Cassiopeia, the Queen.

Cassiopeia, the Queen, wished for a jewel in her crown.

A golden crown would just not do without a jewel inside it too.

She called in the planets, one by one.

Surely one would be her jewel?

# A jewel so shiny Fine and bright

# To make her crown look cool. #

She tried the planet Mercury, the tiny one nearest the Sun. Whoops!

She tried the gas giant, Jupiter, too big to the be the one.

The last she tried was Venus, gleaming bright, the Evening Star.

A jewel in her crown, the perfect fit.

The brightest planet by far.

Well, that was the story of Cassiopeia.

Now, if you'd like to see some more stars, you can print these

star maps off the CBeebies website and do more stargazing.

We'll be doing more stargazing here tomorrow. We'll see you then.