Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach half phase in its 2082 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Cambridge , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 29° above the horizon at sunset on 29 May 2082.

2082 evening apparition of Venus

19 Dec 2081 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
29 May 2082 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
27 Jul 2082 – Venus at dichotomy
29 Jul 2082 – Venus at greatest elongation east
05 Sep 2082 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

07 Oct 2079 – Morning apparition
24 Dec 2080 – Evening apparition
15 May 2081 – Morning apparition
29 Jul 2082 – Evening apparition
17 Dec 2082 – Morning apparition
05 Mar 2084 – Evening apparition
25 Jul 2084 – Morning apparition

Observing Venus

Venus's orbit lies closer to the Sun than the Earth's, meaning that it always appears close to the Sun and is lost in the Sun's glare much of the time.

It is observable for a few months each time it reaches greatest separation from the Sun – moments referred to as greatest elongation. These apparitions repeat roughly once every 1.6 years.

On these occasions, Venus is so bright and conspicuous that it becomes the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. It is often called the morning star or the evening star.

Venus's phase

Venus's phase varies depending on its position relative to the Earth. When it passes between the Earth and Sun, for example, the side that is turned towards the Earth is entirely unilluminated, like a new moon.

Conversely, when it lies opposite to the Earth in its orbit, passing almost behind the Sun, it appears fully illuminated, like a full moon. However, at this time it is also at its most distant from the Earth, so it is actually fainter than at other times.

Venus shows an intermediate half phase – called dichotomy – at roughly the same moment that it appears furthest from the Sun, at greatest elongation. The exact times of the two events may differ by a few days, only because Venus's orbit is not quite perfectly aligned with the ecliptic.

Venus's position

The coordinates of Venus when it reaches dichotomy will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 11h19m40s 4°08'N Leo 23.5"
Sun 08h23m 19°21'N Cancer 31'29"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 23 Nov 2024

The sky on 23 November 2024
Sunrise
06:43
Sunset
16:15
Twilight ends
17:54
Twilight begins
05:03


Waning Crescent

41%

22 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:33 12:55 17:17
Venus 10:09 14:32 18:54
Moon 23:09 06:06 12:50
Mars 20:36 04:03 11:30
Jupiter 17:09 00:40 08:11
Saturn 12:58 18:29 23:59
All times shown in EST.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

29 May 2082  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
29 Jul 2082  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
28 Nov 2082  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
17 Dec 2082  –  Venus at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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