September 3, 1999
Orbiting closer to the Sun than planet Earth,
bright Venus
always appears to be near the Sun's position
in our sky and
often shines near the
horizon in
twilight hours.
In fact, after posing as the brilliant
evening star
for the first half of this year, Venus has now
swung around its orbit and is emerging in the predawn twilight as the
morning star.
Taken during its stint as the evening star, this
imaginative long-exposure photo,
of Venus and a 2-day-old crescent Moon gives the
illusion of the pair "falling out" of the western sky.
After an initial short exposure captured the Moon and
Venus, the lens was covered for a few minutes, then left uncovered to
record the
trails until the Moon had set.