The planets Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love, and Mars, named after the Roman god of war, are both making a close approach to Earth this fall and they're getting really bright.

In the book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus," John Gray describes how far apart men and women can be when it comes to developing and maintaining relationships - how they can be worlds apart.

Well, in our sky right now, the actual planets Venus and Mars are about as far apart as they can be in our Western Pennsylvania skies. In fact they hardly even see each other at all. The planet Mars doesn't rise and show its celestial face until shortly before Venus sets in the west. Heavy counseling is needed here.

You can see Venus in the evening twilight of the southwestern sky around 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. At first, you may think it's an approaching airplane or even a UFO. It's about as bright as it ever gets but it doesn't show its radiance for long, because by 8:30 p.m., it's already below the horizon.

Meanwhile, Mars rising in the east isn't even a sixth as bright, even though it's almost twice as close to Earth than Venus.

Mars is just over 45 million miles away, nearing its closest approach early next month when it's only about 43 million miles from our backyards.

Venus is so bright because it is completely covered by a poisonous atmosphere that is very reflective. Like all planets, Venus emanates no light of its own but rather reflects the sun's light.

Because of all the cloud cover, Venus isn't much to see through a telescope. But, because of the changing angle between the sun, Venus, and Earth, Venus changes shape just like our moon.

Right now Venus looks likes a half moon and, as autumn progresses, it will appear as a thinner and thinner crescent. In fact when Venus is at its closest point to the Earth next January, less that 25 million miles away, it'll be completely invisible by then because it'll lie between us and the sun.

What is known about the surface of Venus comes mostly from radar studies. It looks so peaceful in the southwestern sky, but you're actually looking at the hellhole of the solar system.

Because of the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere it has a runaway greenhouse effect that builds up incredible heat - about 900 degrees in the shade! Also, the atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of the Earth. Even if you take the heat on Venus, the atmospheric pressure would be so immense it would crush you. Oh, one more thing, there's also occasional sulfuric acid rain showers. It's not a nice place to visit.

Even though Mars isn't nearly as bright as Venus, it's much more interesting to look at, especially now since it's getting closer to us and rising earlier and earlier in the eastern sky.

Even with the naked eye, you can see easily see its reddish hue and - with a good enough telescope and some patience - you can spot at least one of the white Martian polar caps and possibly some of its vast darker-shaded canyons.

But hold off viewing Mars through a telescope until it's at least 30 degrees above the horizon. Otherwise it will be too fuzzy to see with any detail due to the Earth's atmosphere.

In the coming weeks I'll have a lot more on Mars's close encounter with Earth.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio on Minneapolis and author of the new book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com