                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2022 February 3
     See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                            Embraced by Sunlight
              Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Luis Cánovas Pérez

   Explanation: Even though Venus (left) was the brightest planet in the
   sky it was less than 1/30th the apparent size of the Moon on January
   29. But as both rose before the Sun they shared a crescent phase. For a
   moment their visible disks were each about 12 percent illuminated as
   they stood above the southeastern horizon. The similar sunlit crescents
   were captured in these two separate images. Made at different
   magnifications, each panel is a composite of stacked video frames taken
   with a small telescope. Venus goes through a range of phases like the
   Moon as the inner planet wanders from evening sky to morning sky and
   back again with a period of 584 days. Of course the Moon completes its
   own cycle of phases, a full lunation, in about 29.5 days.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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