I am enjoying Venus in the morning sky. When? Before the brilliance of the sun over powers ( or hides the tiny dot). This morning knowing where to look I finally found Venus about thirty minutes after sunrise. Venus rises before our sunrise and is brilliant. In a number of months Venus will pass behind the sun and then show up in the evening sky. November.
The planet Venus zooms around the sun in less than 300 days. We the earth also zoom. How fast?
67,000 miles per hour.
Because Venus is an inner planet we observe phases of the planet. First quarter, full, last quarter all are familiar phases of the moon. Everyone understands a full moon or the final morning sliver of the moon. Then a number of days later in the evening we see the increasing sliver of the moon.
Mars and Jupiter never show Earth phases.. Why? These are outer planets so to us we always see a full disk. Fully illuminated by the sun. For teaching purposes create a huge model and move the viewer out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. From Saturn, both Jupiter and Mars and the earth have phases.
THE OLD SAYING, It depends how you look at it.
