Venus in Daylight
Photographer: Paolo Palma
Summary Authors: Paolo Palma; Jim Foster
The crescent shaped sliver of light you see here isn’t the Moon, rather it’s Venus as observed in daytime. Venus is in fact is so bright that you can see it even when the Sun is above the horizon -- if you know where to find it.
The top photo was captured on December 31, 2021, at 12:35 UT. At the time, Venus was only 15° away from the solar disk. The sky was clear, and once I spotted our sister planet (with a binoculars) I noticed a jet aircraft passing close by. Because Venus was almost exactly between the Sun and the Earth on this late December day, it showed a slender curve, just like the crescent Moon. With a diameter of 1', Venus appeared quite big.
The bottom photo was snapped near noon on January 8, 2022. Venus' inferior conjunction of 2022 had occurred a few hours earlier, so again it was almost exactly between the Sun and the Earth. On this day, however, Venus was only 5 degrees away from the solar disk. I was able to detect it and photograph it by hiding the Sun behind the statues placed atop the Church of Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio in Naples, (Italy). Venus is at far right.
Note that if Venus is near maximum angular separation from the Sun as observed Earth it can be easily seen even without binoculars. The key is that you have to know exactly where to look for it. Always use extreme caution when looking anywhere near the Sun.
Photo details (top photo): Nikon 42x camera; Coolpix 510; 4.3; 180 mm 1:3-5.9; ISO 100; 1/1000 second exposure - single snap.
Photo details (bottom photo): Nikon 42x camera; Coolpix 510; 4.3; 180mm 1:3-5.9; ISO 100; 1/1250 second exposure - single snap. Camera wasn’t attached to telescope.
Naples, Italy Coordinates: 40.8518, 14.2681
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