See Venus By Day In 2023
Venus may be visible to the naked eye in the daytime after greatest eastern elongation, when it appears furthest from the setting sun. Against the blue background, Venus is easier to find when the moon is nearby, and the waxing orb obliges on the summer solstice, June 21, 2023.
Our sister planet is down and to the left of the moon. A line drawn from the moon's two cusps will point nearly to Venus about two degrees away. Though Mars is nearby, it's not bright enough to be seen until after the sun sets and the sky darkens. Venus, meanwhile, is at magnitude= -4.4.
Here's how the moon-Venus pair appeared in the twilight previously.
As noted in an earlier EarthSky article, from which the images below are adapted, Venus is at its brightest about a month after greatest eastern elongation for the evening sky and a month before greatest western elongation in the morning sky. For 2023, those extremes fall on June 4 and October 23, respectively.
Therefore, prime viewing with a moon nearby is July 19 and 20, September 11, and October 10. That said, the paragraphs above recommend you try spotting Venus on June 21. On the first day of summer it will be twice as high in the sky at 9:00 PM than on July 19 and 20 (32 degrees of altitude versus 16 degrees).
Below are the relative positions of the moon to Venus on July 19 and 20, 2023. On the 19th, the moon is only two days old, illuminated 4.6%. The next day it is illuminated twice as much.
