At the moment Venus is climbing in the dawn sky and moving further away from the Earth: its crescent is gradually growing until - when it reaches the other side of the Sun (superior opposition) - it will present a 'full Moon' phase. Both the inner planets (Mercury and Venus) display Moon-like phases as they travel around the Sun. Despite popular belief, so do the outer planets, but because of our relative position to them, the maximum is only around a 1% reduction in the area of their visible discs. This occurs when they are at quadrature (when there is a right angle between the Sun, the Earth and the planet)
No comments:
Post a Comment