{"id":668605,"date":"2026-10-29T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668605\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:52:13","slug":"apod-29-october-2026-the-horns-of-venus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668605\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 29 October 2026 &#8211; The Horns of Venus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: <a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/view\/thats-no-moon-obi-wan-kenobi-starwars-death-star-gif-10170550\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">That&#8217;s no moon.<\/a> But you could be forgiven for thinking it was a <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/moon\/moon-phases\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crescent Moon<\/a> in the sky. It is a lesser known fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Phases_of_Venus\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venus also has phases<\/a>. (What about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pas.rochester.edu\/~blackman\/ast104\/aspects6.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">other planets?<\/a>) The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.astrophoto.fr\/20261024_venus_inferior_conjunction.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">featured image<\/a> shows <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/venus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venus<\/a> seen almost directly between the Sun and the Earth. This happens once every <a href=\"https:\/\/astro.dur.ac.uk\/~ams\/users\/inner_rest.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">year and a half<\/a>, and it is like the alignment that happens every month during a new Moon. But the new Moon is dark, while Venus&#8217; backlit <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2023-july-3-venus-in-ultraviolet-from-akatsuki\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">atmosphere<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/ems\/03_behaviors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">refracts and scatters<\/a> the sunlight, creating a glowing <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2023-august-26-crescents-of-venus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crescent arc<\/a> that extends beyond 180 degrees: the tips of this arc are called the &#8220;horns&#8221;. The crescent can be seen with a small telescope or binoculars during twilight, but those with <a href=\"https:\/\/images.unsplash.com\/photo-1497119146420-012f8fc80a3a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">exceptionally acute eyesight<\/a> may be able to see it with the unaided eye. Ancient <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Venus_tablet_of_Ammisaduqa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Babylonian<\/a> astronomers may have been the first to study Venus&#8217; brightness changes, which are related to its <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2024-january-8-the-phases-of-venus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">phases<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Venus_in_culture\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Many other cultures<\/a> have similar astronomical records, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dresden_Codex\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">oldest <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/gdcwdl.wdl_11621\/?st=gallery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surviving<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dresden_Codex\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Maya book<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: What&#8217;s next?\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: That&#8217;s no moon. But you could be forgiven for thinking it was a crescent Moon in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[243471,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-668605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}