Seeing Venus in the daylight, 16 August 2026

Western horizon as seen from Adelaide on Sunday 16 August at 5:25 pm, 20 minutes before sunset. Venus is about two finger-widths beside the crescent Moon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 20 min before local sunset (click to embiggen)10x50 Binocular view of the pair on Sunday 16 August at 5:25 pm. (click to embiggen) While regular readers of this blog know that I'm obsessed with seeing Venus in the daytime. I haven't posted about it for some time. But an excellent opportunity arises this Sunday. Venus is currently bright enough (-4.3) to see during the daylight. However, finding a bright dot in the vast amount of blue can be challenging. It is easier to locate Venus if there is a handy foreground object nearby to use as reference. The Moon is such an object, fairly easy to spot making it a handy guide. On the 16th crescent Moon is about two finger-widths beside the crescent Moon, an excellent opportunity for finding Venus in the daylight. Look for the thin crescent…