It just occured to me as I was reading the many transit posts. Why was Venus
so apparently huge? It seems like the projected image of Venus was much
larger then Venus ever looks during the evening thru the scope. Why would
that be?


When venus is between us and the sun it is about as close to us as it can get
and thus as large as it can get. When Venus passed in front of the sun, it was
58 arc-seconds in diameter, almost twice the diameter of Jupiter.

In order for Venus to be fully illuminated, it must be close to opposition
since it is inside of us. As it comes closer, it becomes less fully
illuminated until it nothing but a thin sliver, but that sliver is large in
diameter, the last few days in May it was about 53 arc-seconds.

jon