- My astronomy blog

Look at Venus and see a crescent moon?

Venus is only days away from inferior conjunction but can still be seen low above the Western horizon during evening twilight.

Image of Venus captured using my Galaxy Note 3's camera and my 8 inch Dobsonian telescope.
Image of Venus captured using my Galaxy Note 3’s camera and my 8 inch Dobsonian telescope. Image taken on 28 December 2013.

However if you point even a small telescope at Venus, you will be in for a surprise. Because Venus is moving between us and the Sun (which will occur on January 11 2014), we are seeing more and more of the night side of Venus. That means Venus looks like a crescent Moon.

Venus as seen through the main eyepiece of my telescope. Yes, it really does look like a very tiny featureless moon.
Venus as seen through the main eyepiece of my telescope on 8 October 2013. Image taken with my Samsung Galaxy 3 phone.

And just for comparison purposes, I have included an image of Venus I took on 8 October 2013. Venus does really show phases – just like our Earth’s Moon.

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3 thoughts on “Look at Venus and see a crescent moon?

  1. Mary-Anne,

    Good to hear from you. That is on my ‘to do’ list. Just finishing off a long article on 2014 astronomical events and it is taking longer than expected because there is so much happening in the new year. Hopefully, I will have those times on line by the end of the week.

    Regards,

    Paul Floyd.

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