Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach half phase in its 2151 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Fairfield , this apparition will be exceptionally well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 42° above the horizon at sunrise on 25 Sep 2151.

2151 morning apparition of Venus

08 Jul 2151 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
12 Aug 2151 – Venus at greatest brightness
16 Sep 2151 – Venus at dichotomy
17 Sep 2151 – Venus at greatest elongation west
25 Sep 2151 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
29 Apr 2152 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

21 Sep 2149 – Evening apparition
10 Feb 2150 – Morning apparition
28 Apr 2151 – Evening apparition
17 Sep 2151 – Morning apparition
03 Dec 2152 – Evening apparition
24 Apr 2153 – Morning apparition
08 Jul 2154 – 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 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 08h27m50s 16°43'N Cancer 23.9"
Sun 11h27m 3°30'N Leo 31'47"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 13 May 2024

The sky on 13 May 2024
Sunrise
05:34
Sunset
20:02
Twilight ends
21:56
Twilight begins
03:40


Waxing Crescent

38%

5 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 04:41 11:11 17:40
Venus 05:23 12:25 19:26
Moon 10:10 18:01 01:41
Mars 03:50 10:03 16:15
Jupiter 05:51 13:03 20:16
Saturn 03:02 08:42 14:21
All times shown in EDT.

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

28 Apr 2151  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
17 Sep 2151  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
25 Sep 2151  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
03 Dec 2152  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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