Venus and the crescent Moon teamed up for a beautiful pairing on the morning of June 22, the first Sunday of summer in the northern hemisphere.  We note from this picture that the Moon is heading towards its "new" position at a point maximally north of the ecliptic in what is called its major lunistice. Venus, on the other hand, now three months beyond its inferior conjunction in March, which was the most northerly one relative to the ecliptic in its eight-year cycle, has now moved well south of the ecliptic as it races ahead of Earth in our orbits around the Sun.  Unannotated image.