Venus December 22, 2024

 Venus is approaching the climax of its 2024 - 2025 evening apparition.  This kind of apparition is similar to other ones that occurred in 1984/5, 1992/3, 2000/1, 2008/9, and 2016/7. The first of those was one that I observed late in 1984 from Georgia and then in the winter of 1985 from Germany, the 1992/3 apparition from Boulder, Colorado, and all the others from central Virginia.  The 2009 March inferior conjunction at the end of the 2008/9 apparition was the first time that I observed Venus on the date of inferior conjunction; I saw it set in the evening just after sunset from my one of my favorite observing sites on the Blue Ridge Parkway, then did a Messier marathon all night, and observed it rise the next morning before sunrise.  That was a special memory in my astronomical experience.
 
In late December 2024, we are seeing Venus at great elongation from the Sun, now at 46°15'11", and also great elevation above the western horizon, standing 31°24'19" above it at sunset.  At this point, Venus is still below (south) of the ecliptic, but heading towards its ascending node on the 16th of January.  After ascending node, it makes its most northerly passage between the Earth and Sun of the five different kinds of inferior conjunctions that it undergoes, which will occur on March 22, 2025.  If the weather is clear and the skies clean, it should be possible to see Venus in the daytime on that date!  Even though they won't be visible, it's interesting to note that on that date, three other planets are in the immediate vicinity ~ Mercury about to pass through inferior conjunction, Saturn just having passed through superior conjunction, and Neptune even more recently passing behind the Sun at its superior conjunction.  Of course, we could simply call those events conjunctions; the "superior" is redundant in the case of outer planets.
 
Based on the planetarium software I use, Orion's TheSky™, by looking at the position of Venus during different instances of this kind of inferior conjunction, I would say that this is the only time when Venus comes to inferior conjunction within the boundaries of Pegasus (!) instead of Pisces.  In 2017 and also 2033, Venus is clearly in Pisces on the date of inferior conjunction.
 
  On the evening of December 22, I got several different views of Venus from one of my favorite places in King George County, Virginia ~ an area to the east of a quarry and mining location which includes several large ponds; it's one of the few places where I can get views over an expanse of water and there are also some nice pine trees against which it's possible to frame the scene to make it a little more interesting.  The images were sharpened, contrast adjusted, and in the middle example, also color-modified.  Saturn is hiding amongst the pine branches in the third picture.