Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed


Objects: Venus

Venus will reach half phase in its 2217 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.4.

From Jacksonville , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 27° above the horizon at sunrise on 11 Mar 2217.

2217 morning apparition of Venus

25 Jan 2217 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
25 Feb 2217 – Venus at greatest brightness
11 Mar 2217 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
06 Apr 2217 – Venus at greatest elongation west
06 Apr 2217 – Venus at dichotomy
08 Nov 2217 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

10 Apr 2215 – Evening apparition
30 Aug 2215 – Morning apparition
15 Nov 2216 – Evening apparition
06 Apr 2217 – Morning apparition
20 Jun 2218 – Evening apparition
08 Nov 2218 – Morning apparition
27 Jan 2220 – 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 21h57m10s 11°16'S Capricornus 24.2"
Sun 00h51m 5°29'N Pisces 31'59"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 26 Nov 2024

The sky on 26 November 2024
Sunrise
06:59
Sunset
17:25
Twilight ends
18:50
Twilight begins
05:34


Waning Crescent

15%

25 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:27 13:28 18:28
Venus 10:17 15:18 20:18
Moon 02:52 08:47 14:36
Mars 21:40 04:35 11:31
Jupiter 18:11 01:09 08:07
Saturn 13:17 18:59 00:41
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

06 Apr 2217  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
26 May 2218  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
20 Jun 2218  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
05 Nov 2218  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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