Venus and the Moon, at it Again

Image: TimBoucher.com

As the moon begins its monthly swing out around the Earth, last night's tiny crescent below Venus brought its three-dimensional journey into focus, and tonight, I continue following its path.  Not "around" the Earth, but this time seeing it moving "out to the side" of us, just starting that move, and tonight's crescent, twice as wide as last night's slender arc, "catching more sun", or perhaps better "showing more sun," brings that more alive for me.

Meanwhile, Venus also is nicely positioned for appreciating its place in the 3D spin of things: it has just recently started moving toward us, after reaching greatest elongation (farthest point from the sun in the sky) about three weeks ago.  It's easy to see it just starting in toward us, on the very beginning of its circling between us and the sun.

There's a great animated gif that shows the growing Venus, courtesy of a NASA news piece well worth reading.