Over the last few months, Venus has been a very bright object in the evening twilight, but you may be forgiven for not noticing it (if you are UK observer) as it has been very close the the Western horizon for most of that time. So, although it has been shining brightly, it has appeared against a twilit sky and also setting soon after the Sun.
Just now it is about to overtake the Earth on the 'inside track' in its orbit, so its evening sky apparition is about to end with 'Inferior Conjunction' on the 11 January 2014, when it will be directly between the Earth and the Sun. At the time of writing, it still shines brightly in the evening twilight, but it is rapidly getting closer to the Sun so it will soon be lost in the evening twilight. After the 11th it will eventually establish itself (by the end of January) as a brlliant object in the pre-dawn sky.
However, a couple of days ago the moon and Venus were quite close to each other in the evening sky, both showing a very thin crescent phase, as show in the accompanying image (which incidently I did not acquire myself!). On the left hand side, the image shows the actual distance between the moon and Venus on the evening of 2 January, and the larger right hand image shows a composite revealing the correct relative sizes and phase of each object - I emphasise that they were not as close to each other as the right hand image suggests.
However it was a note-worthy occasion, the like of which will not happen again for a year and half or so.
Just now it is about to overtake the Earth on the 'inside track' in its orbit, so its evening sky apparition is about to end with 'Inferior Conjunction' on the 11 January 2014, when it will be directly between the Earth and the Sun. At the time of writing, it still shines brightly in the evening twilight, but it is rapidly getting closer to the Sun so it will soon be lost in the evening twilight. After the 11th it will eventually establish itself (by the end of January) as a brlliant object in the pre-dawn sky.
However, a couple of days ago the moon and Venus were quite close to each other in the evening sky, both showing a very thin crescent phase, as show in the accompanying image (which incidently I did not acquire myself!). On the left hand side, the image shows the actual distance between the moon and Venus on the evening of 2 January, and the larger right hand image shows a composite revealing the correct relative sizes and phase of each object - I emphasise that they were not as close to each other as the right hand image suggests.
However it was a note-worthy occasion, the like of which will not happen again for a year and half or so.
The moon and Venus as they appeared on 2 January 2014
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