Venus at greatest brightness

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach its greatest brightness in its 2145 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.6.

From Fairfield , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 25° above the horizon at sunrise on 20 Jul 2145.

2145 morning apparition of Venus

15 Feb 2145 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
18 Mar 2145 – Venus at greatest brightness
26 Apr 2145 – Venus at greatest elongation west
27 Apr 2145 – Venus at dichotomy
19 Jul 2145 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

30 Apr 2143 – Evening apparition
19 Sep 2143 – Morning apparition
06 Dec 2144 – Evening apparition
26 Apr 2145 – Morning apparition
11 Jul 2146 – Evening apparition
29 Nov 2146 – Morning apparition
16 Feb 2148 – Evening 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 brightness

Venus's brightness depends on two factors: its closeness to the Earth, and its phase. Its 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 reaches its brightest when it is still a crescent – with less than half of its disk illuminated. This is because it is much closer to the Earth during its crescent phases than at other times.

As a result, during evening apparitions, Venus reaches maximum brightness a few days after it is at greatest separation from the Sun, which always coincides with it showing half-phase (dichotomy).

Conversely, during morning apparitions, Venus reaches maximum brightness a few days before it is at greatest separation from the Sun.

Venus's position

The coordinates of Venus when it reaches its greatest brightness will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 21h21m20s 9°49'S Aquarius 42.1"
Sun 23h47m 1°19'S Pisces 32'08"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 27 Nov 2024

The sky on 27 November 2024
Sunrise
06:52
Sunset
16:25
Twilight ends
18:03
Twilight begins
05:14


Waning Crescent

8%

26 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:19 12:49 17:19
Venus 10:16 14:45 19:15
Moon 03:23 08:52 14:13
Mars 20:35 03:58 11:22
Jupiter 17:04 00:31 07:58
Saturn 12:50 18:22 23:54
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

08 Jan 2145  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
26 Apr 2145  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
20 Jul 2145  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
23 May 2146  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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