© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at greatest brightness

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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Venus will reach its greatest brightness in its 1980 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.5.

From Cambridge , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 40° above the horizon at sunrise on 9 Sep 1980.

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1980 morning apparition of Venus

15 Jun 1980 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
20 Jul 1980 – Venus at greatest brightness
24 Aug 1980 – Venus at dichotomy
25 Aug 1980 – Venus at greatest elongation west
09 Sep 1980 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

29 Aug 1978 – Evening apparition
18 Jan 1979 – Morning apparition
04 Apr 1980 – Evening apparition
25 Aug 1980 – Morning apparition
10 Nov 1981 – Evening apparition
01 Apr 1982 – Morning apparition
16 Jun 1983 – 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 brightness

Venus's brightness depends on two factors: its closeness to the Earth, and its phase. Its 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 reaches its brightest when it is still a crescent – with less than half of its disk illuminated. This is because it is much closer to the Earth during its crescent phases than at other times.

As a result, during evening apparitions, Venus reaches maximum brightness a few days after it is at greatest separation from the Sun, which always coincides with it showing half-phase (dichotomy).

Conversely, during morning apparitions, Venus reaches maximum brightness a few days before it is at greatest separation from the Sun.

Venus's position

The coordinates of Venus when it reaches its greatest brightness will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 05h16m10s 18°00'N Taurus 37.9"
Sun 08h01m 20°31'N Cancer 31'28"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:31
Sunset
19:05
Twilight ends
20:42
Twilight begins
04:55

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

86%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:58 13:49 20:39
Venus 06:00 11:45 17:29
Moon 21:41 02:49 07:48
Mars 05:22 10:44 16:05
Jupiter 08:10 15:13 22:17
Saturn 05:45 11:17 16:50
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

04 Apr 1980  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
25 Aug 1980  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
09 Sep 1980  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
10 Nov 1981  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Cambridge

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42.38°N
71.11°W
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