Venus's date with the moon

Saturday 28 July 2018, 13:31 by Tanja Thomas | 8,937 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Venus is the brightest planet in the night sky. In the Netherlands too, Venus is currently visible as an extremely bright star in the evening sky.

In clear weather, you can observe the planet from around 22:36, when it becomes sufficiently dark, at 8 degrees above the western horizon.

Camera: Nikon 5100, Settings: f/6.3, 1/160 second, 1600 ISO, 300mm
Because Venus orbits the Sun inside the Earth's orbit, the planet is never very far from the Sun in the sky when viewed from Earth.

Venus has the longest rotation period (243 days) of any planet in the solar system, and it also rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets.

The planet is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the moon.

Venus is often called the Morning or Evening Star by writers and has been an important part of human culture for as long as records have existed, it has been made sacred to gods from many cultures.

A date with the moon

On 15 July 2018, this beauty had a date with the moon. Here in the western United States, in Methow, Washington State, their dance was clearly visible.

The moon was only about 12% illuminated as a 'moon crescent' because a few days had passed since the new moon appeared. The dark part of the moon would show earthshine, a faint glow caused by light reflected back by the planet.

Although I could observe the phenomenon somewhat with the naked eye, it was very difficult to capture it properly on film. I had to zoom in to 300mm and then crop the photo quite heavily.

In post-processing, I desaturated the photo somewhat so that the sky became properly black. I then made the photo a little warmer to make the moon a little more yellow again.

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