Even the largest telescopes can‘t show any details on our inner planetary neighbor, because its surface is constantly obscured by a dense cloud cover. In binoculars you can try to identify the phases of Venus – but again, like with Mercury, keep in the shadows if you’re searching when the Sun is still above the horizon. Just like the Earth‘s Moon, Venus also shows phases. If she shines brightest as the morning or evening star, we‘re looking at her side and see a part of the illuminated dayside facing the Sun dayside and part of the dark night side facing away from the Sun