Questions about the moon/venus eclipse this morning so i need some answers.

I was up this morning on the west coast watching the the moon hide venus through a telescope and i remember a few months ago december/january looking through a telescope at venus it appeared as a blue circle but this morning when i would focus into the point where i could see craters on the moon, venus appeared as a bright half crescent dot and i'm wondering why that is?

My first guess is that maybe it's because of where it's at now in it's orbit compared to where it was in december or january and the sun if reflecting different on it or maybe the whole eclipse thing had something to do with it.

Not saying theres anything weird about it or anything its just tht im almost 100 percent positive im going to be starting college with astrophysics asamajor this year and id like to learn as much as possible before then.

If anyone can answer that would be awesome.

Because Venus is inside Earth's orbit it displays a full range of phases just as the Moon does.
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Phage


Thank you I figured it had something to do with the orbit but wasn't to sure.