Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach half phase in its 2183 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Fairfield , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 42° above the horizon at sunset on 14 Apr 2183.

2183 evening apparition of Venus

06 Sep 2182 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
13 Apr 2183 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
18 Apr 2183 – Venus at greatest elongation east
20 Apr 2183 – Venus at dichotomy
23 May 2183 – Venus at greatest brightness
28 Jun 2183 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

27 Jun 2180 – Morning apparition
11 Sep 2181 – Evening apparition
31 Jan 2182 – Morning apparition
18 Apr 2183 – Evening apparition
07 Sep 2183 – Morning apparition
24 Nov 2184 – Evening apparition
14 Apr 2185 – 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 04h48m40s 25°54'N Taurus 23.8"
Sun 01h45m 10°52'N Pisces 31'51"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 25 Nov 2024

The sky on 25 November 2024
Sunrise
06:50
Sunset
16:26
Twilight ends
18:04
Twilight begins
05:13


Waning Crescent

24%

24 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:30 12:58 17:26
Venus 10:15 14:43 19:11
Moon 01:23 07:34 13:35
Mars 20:42 04:05 11:28
Jupiter 17:13 00:40 08:07
Saturn 12:57 18:29 00:01
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

18 Apr 2183  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
07 Sep 2183  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
19 Sep 2183  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
24 Nov 2184  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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