© 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 2007 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From San Diego , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 39° above the horizon at sunset on 14 May 2007.

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2007 evening apparition of Venus

27 Oct 2006 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
14 May 2007 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
08 Jun 2007 – Venus at dichotomy
09 Jun 2007 – Venus at greatest elongation east
14 Jul 2007 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

18 Aug 2004 – Morning apparition
03 Nov 2005 – Evening apparition
25 Mar 2006 – Morning apparition
09 Jun 2007 – Evening apparition
28 Oct 2007 – Morning apparition
14 Jan 2009 – Evening apparition
05 Jun 2009 – 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 08h22m10s 21°52'N Cancer 23.4"
Sun 05h05m 22°50'N Taurus 31'30"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:39
Sunset
19:05
Twilight ends
20:29
Twilight begins
05:15

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

88%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:16 13:52 20:29
Venus 05:59 11:49 17:39
Moon 21:33 02:59 08:18
Mars 05:14 10:48 16:21
Jupiter 08:32 15:17 22:02
Saturn 05:40 11:21 17:02
All times shown in PDT.

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

14 May 2007  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
09 Jun 2007  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
25 Oct 2007  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
28 Oct 2007  –  Venus at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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San Diego

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32.72°N
117.16°W
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