Venus also appears considerably larger (up to 65″) when it's closest at inferior conjunction compared to 10″ at superior conjunction. The planet's phase changes as the angle Venus makes with the Sun and Earth varies across its orbit. At superior conjunction it aligns with the Sun on the far side of its orbit. At inferior conjunction Venus passes almost directly between the Earth and Sun. Just like someone seated a few rows ahead of you at a concert momentarily blocks your view of the lead guitarist when they get up to leave and have to excuse their way down the row.īecause Venus orbits the Sun interior to the Earth it appears to cycle from one side of the Sun to the other from our perspective. What's really happening is that Venus will soon be in the same line of sight as the Sun, then it will pass to its 'right' and reappear in the morning sky. Thank goodness for all that emptiness or the universe would be in a lot of trouble. The sky is like a flat drawing board with celestial objects describing lines and arcs that approach and sometimes touch as if there were no space between them. It looks that way because we can't sense depth at the distances of the Moon and planets. In astronomy appearances can be so convincing that it's hard to explain to newcomers that Venus and the Sun aren't actually getting closer to each other. Every day the fleeing planet draws 1° closer to the solar glare as it approaches its August 13th inferior conjunction with the Sun. By the start of July, it started losing altitude - fast! Now, in the final week of the month, I have to drive 2 miles to a nearby field and use binoculars to pull it out of the twilight glow minutes after sunset.

Have you seen Venus lately? In late spring the brightest planet beamed high above treetops and apartment buildings alike. These photos were taken on May 31 (left) and June 2, 2020, when just 0.4% and 0.1% of the planet, respectively, were illuminated by sunlight.

Sunlight scattered by its atmosphere forms a narrow, glowing ring around the entire planet. Around the time of inferior conjunction we face the nightside of Venus.

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