Venus will reach its greatest separation from the Sun in its 2015–2016 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.4.
From Cambridge , this apparition will be reasonably placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 41° above the horizon at sunrise on 24 Oct 2015.
The table below lists how high above the horizon Venus will appear at sunrise over the course of the apparition. All times are given in Cambridge local time.
Date | Sun rises at |
Venus rises at |
Altitude at sunrise |
Direction at sunrise |
25 Aug 2015 | 06:05 | 05:05 | 10° | east |
04 Sep 2015 | 06:15 | 04:11 | 22° | east |
14 Sep 2015 | 06:26 | 03:34 | 30° | east |
24 Sep 2015 | 06:36 | 03:14 | 36° | east |
04 Oct 2015 | 06:47 | 03:05 | 39° | south-east |
14 Oct 2015 | 06:59 | 03:06 | 41° | south-east |
24 Oct 2015 | 07:11 | 03:13 | 41° | south-east |
03 Nov 2015 | 06:23 | 02:24 | 40° | south-east |
13 Nov 2015 | 06:35 | 02:39 | 39° | south-east |
23 Nov 2015 | 06:48 | 02:56 | 36° | south-east |
03 Dec 2015 | 06:59 | 03:15 | 33° | south-east |
13 Dec 2015 | 07:08 | 03:36 | 30° | south-east |
23 Dec 2015 | 07:14 | 03:57 | 27° | south-east |
02 Jan 2016 | 07:16 | 04:19 | 23° | south-east |
12 Jan 2016 | 07:15 | 04:40 | 20° | south-east |
A graph of the angular separation of Venus from the Sun around the time of greatest elongation is available here.
Observing Venus
15 Aug 2015 | – Venus at inferior solar conjunction |
20 Sep 2015 | – Venus at greatest brightness |
24 Oct 2015 | – Venus reaches highest point in morning sky |
25 Oct 2015 | – Venus at dichotomy |
26 Oct 2015 | – Venus at greatest elongation west |
31 Oct 2013 | – Venus at greatest elongation east |
23 Mar 2014 | – Venus at greatest elongation west |
06 Jun 2015 | – Venus at greatest elongation east |
26 Oct 2015 | – Venus at greatest elongation west |
12 Jan 2017 | – Venus at greatest elongation east |
03 Jun 2017 | – Venus at greatest elongation west |
17 Aug 2018 | – Venus at greatest elongation east |
Venus's orbit lies closer to the Sun than the Earth's, meaning 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.
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.
These apparitions repeat roughly once every 1.6 years, taking place alternately in the morning and evening skies, depending whether Venus lies to the east of the Sun or to the west.
When it lies to the east, it rises and sets a short time after the Sun and is visible in early evening twilight. When it lies to the west of the Sun, it rises and sets a short time before the Sun and is visible shortly before sunrise.
At each apparition, Venus reaches a maximum separation from the Sun of around 48°. However, some times of the year are more favourable for viewing Venus than others. From Cambridge, it reaches a peak altitude of between 22° and 44° above the horizon at sunrise during each morning apparition, depending on the time of year. During its 2015–2016 apparition, it will peak at 41° above the horizon at sunrise on 24 Oct 2015.
This variability over the course of the year is due to the inclination of the ecliptic to the horizon.
The inclination of the ecliptic to the horizon
At all times, Venus lies close to a line across the sky called the ecliptic, which is shown in yellow in the planetarium above. This line traces the path that the Sun takes through the zodiacal constellations every year, and shows the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Since all the planets circle the Sun in almost exactly the same plane, it also closely follows the planes of the orbits of the other planets, too.
When Venus is widely separated from the Sun, it is separated from it along the line of the ecliptic. But, at different times of year, the ecliptic meets the horizon at different angles at sunrise. This would translate into Venus being at different altitudes above the horizon, even if its separation from the Sun was constant.
If the ecliptic meets the horizon at a shallow angle, then Venus has to be very widely separated from the Sun to appear much above the horizon. Conversely, if the ecliptic is almost perpendicular to the horizon, Venus may appear much higher in the sky, even if it is actually much closer to the Sun.
The seasonal dependence of this is that at sunset, the ecliptic makes its steepest angle to the horizon at the spring equinox – in March in the northern hemisphere, and in September in the southern hemisphere. Conversely, it meets the horizon at its shallowest angle at the autumn equinox. Because the seasons are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres, a good apparition of Venus in one hemisphere will usually be badly placed in the other.
At sunrise, these dates are also inverted, so that for morning apparitions of Venus, the ecliptic makes its steepest angle to the horizon at the autumn equinox, and its shallowest angle to the horizon at the spring equinox.
The optimum time for an apparition of Venus
For this reason, the day when Venus reaches its widest separation from the Sun (greatest elongation) is not necessarily the same day when it appears highest in the sky at sunrise. Venus typically appears highest in the sky a few days or weeks closer to the autumn equinox than the moment of greatest elongation.
The inclination of the ecliptic plane to the horizon at Cambridge varies between 71° (sunrise at the autumn equinox) and 24° (sunrise at the spring equinox). On October 26, the ecliptic is inclined at 66° to the eastern dawn horizon, as shown by the yellow line in the planetarium above, meaning that this apparition of Venus will be reasonably placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 41° above the horizon at sunrise.
Venus's position
The position of Venus when it reaches greatest elongation will be:
Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
Venus | 11h08m00s | +05°33' | Leo | -4.4 | 24.1" |
Sun | 14h00m | -12°16' | Virgo | -26.7 | 32'10" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 26 October 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
97% 13 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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
26 Oct 2015 | – Venus at greatest elongation west |
29 Nov 2015 | – Venus at perihelion |
20 Mar 2016 | – Venus at aphelion |
06 Jun 2016 | – Venus at superior solar conjunction |
Image credit
© NASA/Ricardo Nunes