Venus's Eight-Year Star

Venus is never far from the Sun. Its orbit is inside ours, so from here it swings out to one side of the Sun and back, then out to the other: an evening star in the west after sunset, then a morning star in the east before dawn, never a midnight one.

Three and a half years of Venus's angle from the Sun, east in the evening, west in the morning. It turns back at about 46° every time, and every 584 days passes between us and the Sun.

Mark each passing on the zodiac and join them in order. Each lands 144° short of the last, so five draw a star, and the sixth almost closes it: five 584-day cycles are eight of our years.

The same eight years as Venus's path around us: five loops, one at each passing, where it overtakes the Earth on the inside track. The next eight years trace almost the same rose.