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Credit & Copyright: Tamas Ladanyi
(TWAN)
Explanation:
That's not a young crescent Moon
posing behind cathedral towers after sunset.
It's Venus in a crescent phase.
About 40 million kilometers away and
about 2 percent
illuminated by
sunlight, it was captured with camera and telephoto lens in this series
of exposures as it set in western skies on January 1 from Veszprem,
Hungary.
The bright celestial beacon was languishing in the evening
twilight, its days as the
Evening Star
coming to a close as 2022 began.
But it was also growing larger in apparent size and becoming an
ever thinner crescent
in telescopic views.
Heading toward a (non-judgemental)
inferior
conjunction, the inner planet will be positioned
between
Earth and Sun on January 9
and generally lost from view in the solar glare.
A crescent Venus will soon reappear though.
Rising in the east by mid-month just before the Sun as the brilliant
Morning Star.
Status Updates:
Deploying the
James Webb Space Telescope
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Venus
Publications with words: Venus
See also: