Is that a star? Or a planet?

I was returning from an exercise-walk around the village, and the sun had set some time before. It had been a fine, clear day, and the evening was cold. The sky was getting very blue, and would soon be black. I'd had a good walk, but had stayed out a bit too long, and it was getting harder to see what was in the shadows. I was reluctant to take short cuts, and had stuck to the roads. I was especially averse to crossing the big open space behind my house, now completely dark. Of course, there was no rational danger, even though it was hard not to think of mad axemen and other gentry lurking there in the pall. Why risk any encounter?

I quickened my pace. Somewhere in the gloom a rabbit had screamed: caught by a stoat. Nature red in tooth and claw.

Owls hooted warnings. Bats fluttered like twittering ghosts.

Wolves howled. I ought to get indoors before the pack picked up my scent.

Nearly home again, I glanced up at the moon. It was a crescent Moon; and near to it - below and off to the right - was a bright star or planet. The beauty of it smote my heart, and I couldn't help pausing to look at it.

It was still not dark enough for all the stars to come out, so this companion of the Moon's must be one of the most luminous objects in the sky, at any time. Now could I put a name to it?

Was it a star? No, it wasn't just a far-distant point of light: it seemed big enough and near enough to show a round disc, like the Moon did, only much smaller. A planet then. But which?

There were only two candidates I could think of: Venus and Jupiter. Venus was the size of Earth, orbiting the Sun closer in than we did. Venus usually appeared soon after sunset, but didn't linger, as where the Sun went, Venus followed. And the Sun had long gone.

Jupiter then. The giant planet. Though far enough away to appear small. Still however reflecting a lot of the Sun's light, so that it outshone all the stars. 

I thought of the next largest planet, Saturn. I didn't know where to look for it in the sky. But I recalled the image NASA had published back in 2013 of Saturn from its far side, looking back towards the Sun with Saturn in silhouette, taken by one of the Voyager probes. (Click on the image to enlarge it, and the same for any of the rest) 

This stunning shot shows another planet too: ours. NASA gave us a close-up. It's the bottom-right part of Saturn in the picture above:

In the bottom-right of this picture is a blue dot. And off to its left is an even tinier (and much fainter) white dot. That's the Earth and the Moon. Us. As seen from the far side of Saturn. 

Shots like this fill you with awe. 

But even from here, on a Sussex evening, the sky can look awesome. I peered upwards again.

Yes, that speck of light to the lower right of the Moon must be the planet Jupiter.

Unless it was the planet Malevolor, edging closer in its highly eccentric orbit. I hoped not. Believe me - trust me - you don't want to mess with beings from the planet Malevolor.