Phases of Venus . ... Second planet from the Sun and third brightest celestial object after the Sun and Moon, Venus has been appreciated by casual sky gazers as a brilliant beacon above the horizon after sunset. ... At the same time, just as the Moon goes through phases , Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere has presented an increasingly slender, crescent shape . Now sharing the sky with a crescent Moon, on June 8th Venus will actually cross the face of the Sun, the first such transit since 1882 . ...