Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach half phase in its 2213 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Columbus , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but , reaching a peak altitude of 25° above the horizon at sunset on 15 Jun 2213.

2213 evening apparition of Venus

26 Jan 2213 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
15 Jun 2213 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
31 Aug 2213 – Venus at dichotomy
02 Sep 2213 – Venus at greatest elongation east
11 Oct 2213 – Venus at greatest brightness
12 Nov 2213 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

11 Nov 2210 – Morning apparition
29 Jan 2212 – Evening apparition
19 Jun 2212 – Morning apparition
02 Sep 2213 – Evening apparition
22 Jan 2214 – Morning apparition
10 Apr 2215 – Evening apparition
30 Aug 2215 – 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 13h15m30s 10°12'S Virgo 23.8"
Sun 10h28m 9°35'N Leo 31'40"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 26 Nov 2024

The sky on 26 November 2024
Sunrise
07:27
Sunset
17:08
Twilight ends
18:44
Twilight begins
05:51


Waning Crescent

16%

25 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 09:00 13:33 18:06
Venus 10:50 15:23 19:56
Moon 03:02 08:53 14:34
Mars 21:21 04:41 12:00
Jupiter 17:51 01:14 08:38
Saturn 13:31 19:04 00:38
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

15 Jun 2213  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
02 Sep 2213  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
27 Dec 2213  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
22 Jan 2214  –  Venus at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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