Graceful arc of Venus before dawn

Venus in the morning sky forty-five minutes before sunrise from August 2015 through March 2016 from LarryKoehn on Vimeo.

Check out this wonderful animation from Larry Koehn of shadowandsubstance.com. It shows Venus in the morning sky 45 minutes before sunrise from August 2015 through March 2016. Larry said:

I would like to thank Thierry Lombry for allowing me to use his most excellent photo. And…I would also like to thank Guy Ottewell for his inspiration!

A couple of cool things to notice here. First, notice the little box beneath the animation that shows the telescopic appearance of Venus during these months. The planet is just now emerging from being between the Earth and sun, and telescopic viewers are seeing it as a large but thin crescent world. As the months pass, and Venus flies ahead of Earth in its smaller and faster orbit around the sun, the disk of Venus will shrink in size, while the phase of Venus waxes larger. as viewed from Earth.

Also, notice in this animation that Venus will pass other planets in the eastern, predawn sky. Watch for Venus near Jupiter and Mars in late October and early November!

Thank you, Larry Koehn, as always for your great animations and for alerting us to this one!

Read more about the return of Venus to the morning sky