Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach half phase in its 2196 morning 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 33° above the horizon at sunrise on 11 Aug 2196.

2196 morning apparition of Venus

14 Apr 2196 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
17 May 2196 – Venus at greatest brightness
23 Jun 2196 – Venus at greatest elongation west
23 Jun 2196 – Venus at dichotomy
11 Aug 2196 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
30 Jan 2197 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

26 Jun 2194 – Evening apparition
15 Nov 2194 – Morning apparition
02 Feb 2196 – Evening apparition
23 Jun 2196 – Morning apparition
06 Sep 2197 – Evening apparition
26 Jan 2198 – Morning apparition
14 Apr 2199 – 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 02h53m50s 13°27'N Aries 23.5"
Sun 06h03m 23°24'N Gemini 31'28"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 25 Nov 2024

The sky on 25 November 2024
Sunrise
06:45
Sunset
16:14
Twilight ends
17:54
Twilight begins
05:05


Waning Crescent

20%

24 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:26 12:49 17:13
Venus 10:11 14:34 18:58
Moon 01:14 07:25 13:26
Mars 20:30 03:57 11:23
Jupiter 17:01 00:31 08:02
Saturn 12:50 18:21 23:51
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

23 Jun 2196  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
11 Aug 2196  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
16 Jun 2197  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
06 Sep 2197  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Share