As Venus approaches its inferior conjunction, astrophotographers have snapped some striking shots of the crescent planet ...

Each month, as day and night sweep across the lunar nearside, the sunlit part of our view takes on a series of familiar shapes: crescent ... to see the Moon’s actual color from a distance.

Related: What you can see in the night sky tonight On the nights before and after a new moon, when just a thin crescent is present, it is sometimes possible to make out the stunning effect known ...