As the planet show winds down Venus takes the stage for the last act of the year.
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Of course most of you already know this but now is a
good time to start to regularly watch Venus. As the planets close out their
observing season, Venus now takes the center stage.
Of all the planets, none, other
than perhaps Mars, changes in size so much during it's orbit around the
sun. Oddly, Venus as it becomes a more and more defined crescent,
actually gets considerably brighter. This is already happening. It now
is a distinct crescent whereas a couple of months ago it was gibbous.
This is fun to watch and the size difference over time is considerable. It should
get to be the largest diameter around June or thereabouts. It is an easy target and provides a very
nice extended observation. The observation can be done from anywhere as it is fairly high in the sky now.
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