Crescents of Venus
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Roberto Ortu
Just as the Moon goes
through phases, Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere
waxes and wanes.
This sequence of
telescopic
images
illustrates the steady changes for Venus during
its recent 2023 apparition as our evening star.
Gliding along its interior orbit between Earth and Sun, Venus grows
larger during that period because it is approaching planet Earth.
Its crescent narrows though, as the inner planet swings closer to our
line-of-sight to the Sun.
Closest to the Earth-Sun line but passing about 8 degrees south of the
Sun, on August 13 Venus reached its (non-judgmental)
inferior conjunction.
And now Venus shines above the eastern horizon in
predawn skies, completing its transition to planet Earth's
morning star.
On August 21, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its sixth
gravity assist flyby of Venus, using the encounter to maneuver
the probe toward its
closest approach yet to the Sun.