© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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Venus will reach half phase in its 1990 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.4.

From Fairfield , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but , reaching a peak altitude of 21° above the horizon at sunrise on 25 Feb 1990.

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1990 morning apparition of Venus

18 Jan 1990 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
18 Feb 1990 – Venus at greatest brightness
25 Feb 1990 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
30 Mar 1990 – Venus at greatest elongation west
30 Mar 1990 – Venus at dichotomy
01 Nov 1990 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

02 Apr 1988 – Evening apparition
22 Aug 1988 – Morning apparition
08 Nov 1989 – Evening apparition
30 Mar 1990 – Morning apparition
14 Jun 1991 – Evening apparition
02 Nov 1991 – Morning apparition
19 Jan 1993 – 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 21h42m40s 12°15'S Capricornus 24.3"
Sun 00h37m 4°04'N Pisces 32'01"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:40
Sunset
19:13
Twilight ends
20:47
Twilight begins
05:06

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

84%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:08 13:57 20:46
Venus 06:08 11:53 17:38
Moon 21:47 02:58 08:00
Mars 05:29 10:52 16:16
Jupiter 08:21 15:22 22:23
Saturn 05:52 11:26 17:00
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

30 Mar 1990  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
11 May 1991  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
14 Jun 1991  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
27 Oct 1991  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Fairfield

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41.14°N
73.26°W
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