Orbit of Venus

• From angular size of Venus (Chap. 4 Prob. 3)

  • Maximum angular size 61 arcsec
    • crescent phase
      • between Earth and Sun
    • minimum angular size 10 arcsec
      • full phase
        • Sun is between Venus and Earth

• and small angle formula

  • We found the ratio of the maximum distance to Venus dmax to the minimum distance to Venus dmin was dmax/dmin = 6.1
  • this can be used to find the radius RV of Venus’ orbit in units of the Earth’s orbital radius RE (which is 1 AU)
    • dmax = RE + RV
    • dmin = RE - RV

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