A Venusian lasts for 118 Earth days and the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, due to the planet roataing in the opposite direction to Earth. Becuase of the clouds and weather it was necessary to use radar to map the planet. On the 4th of May 1989 the Magellan space probe was launched from the NASA Shuttle Atlantis. The probe reached Venus just after a year later on the 10th of August 1990 and it had completed its radar mapping by September 1992. It then started gravity mapping the planet, and Magellan still holds the record for the most information sent back from a space misson.
Vensuian geography is comprised of a huge main plain and some highlands and lowlands.
There are two main highland areas known as Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra and another smaller highland area called Beta Regio where Rhea Mons and Theia Mons are found and there is also a shield volcano. The highest points on Venus are in the Maxwell Mountains, named after the Scottish mathematicianand physicist James Clerk Maxwell, and are on the eastern side of the Ishtar Terra. There is a edict which states that all geoegraphical names on Venus are to be feminine names, in the manner of the planet itself. The only exception is the Maxwell Mountains as these were named before the decree. Apparent Diameter max.