Venus

Yesterday at ISS hunt I had an approximate half an hour till 17:11 ISS pass. It was a bright clear sunset, Venus was such an obvious target to spent some time with. Although the air was shaking due the harsh wind blowing from east , when I set the controls to the heart of Venus :) the surprise came. 

I really never spent time on Venus, probably once but luckily it was a full Venus than. So never assumed a crescent Venus exists.

Than I realised how dumb I am, of course there is a crescent Venus. I found this drawing on twitter. It explains why we see the Venus the same way than we see our Moon, in different phases.

It also explaines why will Venus become from a sunset object to a sunrise object. Soon it disappears as it positions itself in-between Sun and Earth, just like Moon does. Of course Venus and Moon has a different orbit and motion relatively to Earth, but still the way they are lit is similar and results similar visual experience.

So see you Venus in the morning skies on the 11th January....