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© Henry Mendt
As November begins, Venus is passing almost directly between Earth and the sun, an event astronomers call "inferior conjunction." The view through a telescope is both beautiful and dangerous. Henry Mendt of Maracaibo, Venezuela, took this daylight picture of Venus only 7o from the blinding sun on Oct. 31st.

Venus is such a slender crescent because the planet's night side is almost-squarely facing Earth. "Only 0.7% of the disk was illuminated," says Mendt, "but the crescent was bright and wide, a full arcminute in diameter. This made Venus easy to find even in the midday sky." Here he describes how he safely targeted Venus using an 8-inch telescope and photographed the planet from inside the shadows of a parking garage.

Venus will become even easier to find in the weeks ahead as it emerges from the glare of the sun into the pre-dawn sky. The crescent will be a little fatter, but much less dangerous and no less beautiful. Stay tuned for the Morning Star.