Aspects of Venus

As the second-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon, often prominent during the morning or evening, Venus has aspects that are readily apparent to the casual eye.

They were of historical importance in the development of geocentric and ultimately heliocentric models of the Solar System.

[1][2] Note: Greatest brilliancy is often confused with "maximum brightness".

Only if the luminance of Venus' apparent surface would be constant (i.e. the same at every point and at every phase) would the "greatest brilliancy" of Venus coincide with its maximum brightness.

However, the reflection of sunlight on Venus more closely follows Lambert's law, which means that the maximum brightness occurs at a somewhat larger phase of Venus than its greatest brilliancy.