Phases of Venus
MARIAH HAAS, CALVIN DOBESH, CRYSTAL GRADY
OVERVIEW
2015 UW College of Education Research Symposium
Venus goes through phases much like the moon. However, due to
it’s location with Earth and the Sun, it takes longer for Venus to
show major changes in her phases. Venus has over 1000 volcanoes
and is considered Earth’s sister planet due to its size, mass, density,
and volume. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. Venus
does not tilt on its axis which causes the greenhouse effect. Venus
rotates clockwise and makes one full rotation in 243 Earth days
even though it takes only 225 days to orbit the sun.
PARTICIPANTS
FINDINGS
It was difficult to do observations because not only would we have to observe Venus for an extended period of time, but the
weather would also have to cooperate for clear viewing. During our time at UW, it was cloudy and raining and we were unable to
collect this data over a period of time. However, we were fortunate enough to have observed Venus a few times and were able to
draw one of the phases. As a quick way for us to locate Venus during our observations, as the sun was setting we can look to the
west for the brightest object in the sky. We found that as it orbits and Venus and Earth get closer together, Venus appears larger
and brighter to us here on Earth. We noticed that it was in the waning crescent with approximately 25-30% showing. Because of
the few observations, we did the majority of our research on the internet. During our research we found that in Galileo’s
discovery of Earth not being the center of the universe, one of his reasons was because Venus has different phases.
KEY
Venus & Earth Tango
Around the Sun
Venus Pentagram
RESULTS
Hand drawings by Galileo
Venus orbits the Sun in 225 days, where as the
Earth takes 365 days. Because of this we are
able to only see It takes 584 days (1.8 years)
for Venus to overtake the Earth in its orbit and
phase from “New Venus” to “Full Venus” to
“New Venus” again. The last “Full Venus” was
observed December 18, 2014 and the next
“New Venus” will take place roughly between
August 14-17th 2015. We also found that in
order for Venus to complete the 5 points of
superior conjunction (Earth, Venus, Sun), it
takes 9 years.
Projected Phases Calendar
Questions during our research include:
Venus Phases
* What is a westward synodic drift? For future work, this is an area that we want to further research.
Phases of Venus
Mariah Haas, Calvin Dobesh, Crystal Grady
Future
Work