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Yesterday afternoon, I think I had my last daylight Venus observation before inferior conjunction, partly because it is now intrinsically faint and also because the forecast is cloudy for the week remaining before Venus passes between Earth and Sun.

The sky was blue yesterday, certainly "clear", but not a deep blue. It was the sort of light blue sky that makes visual astronomy difficult... Since inferior conjunction is only a week away, Venus is now a razor-thin crescent, noticeably fainter than it was just a few days ago, and difficult to see in the daytime sky. I set up my old telescope and used an old method to get to Venus. A modern scope, after a brief setup to get its computer alignment oriented, will happily point to Venus using its own internal ephemerides at the click of a "button". Instead I used offset pointing from the Sun... 

For offset pointing, I lined up the telescope on the Sun, which is relatively easy by looking at its shadow on the ground, and then checking the setting circles, I shifted "up" by 13° in Declination and to the "left" (northern hemisphere) by 9° in RA/SHA. Though difficult, I found it, and once I managed to get the focus correct (not easy), I could see Venus as a delicate, thin crescent. Very pretty. I could also see it occasionally in binoculars by laying on the ground and sighting up the telescope tube, but I could not see it "naked eye", without optical aid, at all.

On the day of inferior conjunction, I'm teaching "Lunars" at Mystic Seaport. If the forecast has any potential for clear skies near local noon, I will set up my scope, and we'll look for Venus just 8.5° away from the Sun. At this time, the "crescent" of Venus should extend to an angle greater than 180° --between a normal crescent and a ring-- and the orientation should have the bright limb pointing perpendicular to the ecliptic, which makes good sense but it's certainly an unusual sight!

Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island, North America