Evening Star Venus as a radiant telltale crescent

By Dan Hicks

Ending its reign as our Evening Star, Venus is moving in front of the sun as it nears Planet Earth, en route to its August 13 inferior conjunction; but before Venus vanishes later this week,
its waning left-facing crescent is becoming ever larger, and the planet remains very bright (outshone only by the moon); for the past two evenings, via my Nikon astronomical binocular (handheld but braced), I saw it as a distinct miniaturized crescent moon.

Lead image: Venusian phases relating to the planet’s inferior conjunction – Earth, Venus and sun are aligned. Skyandtelescope.org 2022. Now above our western horizon is the left-facing Venusian crescent (to the left of the vacant inferior conjunction orb). Venusian superior conjunction occurs when Earth, sun, and Venus are aligned (Venus becomes the full orb at upper centre).

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