Venus is now 3 days past its greatest elongation east, and this image taken tonight seems to show just the slightest hint of a crescent. As it moves towards inferior conjunction on 18 August, this crescent will slim and the size of the planet grow. Late July-early August in the evening sky and late August in the morning sky should offer some good imaging opportunities for the slim crescent, with Venus at around a whopping 50 arcseconds in diameter.
My pic's not great, but it is probably my best Venus yet. Taken in blue sky at 5:00pm (07:00 UT). NexImage through 114x900mm reflector with 2x GSO Barlow. 4 x 5-sec AVIs @ 24fps stacked in Registax V3. Cropped & resized in PS CS2.
Cheers -
