The skies were suprisingly clear here in central Texas this evening, so I carted out the ol’ telescope to see what I could see. Aiming it roughly northwest, I caught Venus (or what I think was Venus) at about 9:00pm local time. It seemed to be about 80% covered by another dark, round object, like an eclipse. I observed it for about an hour with no noticeable change. After a search of popular skywatching sites, I can’t turn up anything of the sort fot his date & time…any ideas?
Venus goes through phases, just like the Moon.
:smack:
I shoulda known that one…is there any place that tracks the phases of Venus?
I was going to suggest JPL’s Solar System Simulator (select Venus as seen from Earth and hit Run Simulator) but for some reason the phase looks wrong… it should be lit from the right (west) side. 