The Crescent of Venus amidst the colours of a parhelion
Taken by PAOLO PALMA on October 9, 2026 @
Rome
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Details:
The image captures one of those rare moments when the planet of love, peeking out from behind the white, wind-swept clouds, appears alongside tufts of cirrus clouds fleetingly coloured by atmospheric refraction, whilst positioned at approximately 22 degrees from the Sun.
I’d had this photo in mind for a few years, but it’s only possible to capture it when the fast-moving planet is also at roughly the same angular distance from the Sun and at the same inclination as the phenomenon.
You need the right clouds, but at the same time there mustn’t be too many of them, so as to leave some patch of sky through which to admire the planet.
But finally, that moment arrived! And it happened to be yesterday, when Venus was at 22.5° elongation.
I spotted its crescent through the clouds just a few moments before the parhelion began to appear. And having lost sight of it shortly afterwards amongst the white clouds, I thought I wouldn’t be able to capture them together.
But here’s the surprise: it was visible in some of the shots I’d taken a few seconds later of the colourful parhelion, which had, in the meantime, ‘moved closer’ to it.
Single shot with Nikon Coolpix P900 - ISO100 - 1/1000s - F6.3
at about 04:45 pm UT.
Photographer's website:
https://www.unsaltonelcielo.it
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