© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at superior solar conjunction

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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The sky at

Venus will pass very close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it around the far side of the solar system from the Earth.

This occurs once in every synodic cycle of the planet (584 days), and marks the end of Venus's apparition in the morning sky and its transition to become an evening object over the next few weeks.

At closest approach, Venus will appear at a separation of only 1°21' from the Sun, making it totally unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun's glare.

Venus will also pass apogee – the time when it is most distant from the Earth – at around the same time, since it will lie exactly opposite to the Earth in the Solar System. It will move to a distance of 1.72 AU from the Earth, making it appear small and very distant. If it could be observed, it would measure 9.7 arcsec in diameter, whilst appearing completely illuminated.

The position of Venus at the moment it passes solar conjunction will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 00h22m30s 0°58'N Pisces 9.7"
Sun 00h20m 2°12'N Pisces 32'03"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 26 Mar 2021

The sky on 26 March 2021
Sunrise
07:01
Sunset
19:27
Twilight ends
20:58
Twilight begins
05:31

13-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

94%

13 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:25 12:02 17:39
Venus 07:09 13:16 19:23
Moon 17:04 00:00 06:45
Mars 10:09 17:37 01:04
Jupiter 05:17 10:30 15:44
Saturn 04:44 09:46 14:47
All times shown in EDT.

Warning

Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.

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

02 Sep 2020  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
29 Oct 2021  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
06 Dec 2021  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
16 Feb 2022  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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39.04°N
77.49°W
EDT

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