© 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 2025 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Fairfield , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 31° above the horizon at sunrise on 1 Aug 2025.

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2025 morning apparition of Venus

22 Mar 2025 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
24 Apr 2025 – Venus at greatest brightness
31 May 2025 – Venus at greatest elongation west
01 Jun 2025 – Venus at dichotomy
01 Aug 2025 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
06 Jan 2026 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

The table below lists the altitude of Venus at sunrise over the course of the apparition. All times are given in Fairfield local time.

Date Sun
rises at
Venus
rises at
Altitude
at sunrise
Direction
at sunrise
Mag Phase
03 May 202505:4504:0119°east-4.531%
13 May 202505:3403:4420°east-4.538%
23 May 202505:2503:2921°east-4.444%
02 Jun 202505:1903:1523°east-4.350%
12 Jun 202505:1703:0324°east-4.255%
22 Jun 202505:1802:5326°east-4.260%
02 Jul 202505:2102:4528°east-4.164%
12 Jul 202505:2802:4229°east-4.168%
22 Jul 202505:3602:4231°east-4.072%
01 Aug 202505:4502:4831°east-4.075%
11 Aug 202505:5502:5931°east-4.078%
21 Aug 202506:0503:1530°east-4.081%
31 Aug 202506:1603:3429°east-4.084%
10 Sep 202506:2503:5627°east-3.987%
20 Sep 202506:3504:1825°east-3.989%
30 Sep 202506:4604:4123°east-3.991%
10 Oct 202506:5605:0420°east-3.993%
20 Oct 202507:0705:2718°east-3.994%

Altitude of Venus at sunrise

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

04 Jun 2023 – Evening apparition
23 Oct 2023 – Morning apparition
10 Jan 2025 – Evening apparition
31 May 2025 – Morning apparition
14 Aug 2026 – Evening apparition
03 Jan 2027 – Morning apparition
21 Mar 2028 – 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 01h37m30s 7°47'N Pisces 23.6"
Sun 04h38m 22°07'N Taurus 31'32"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 1 Jun 2025

The sky on 1 June 2025
Sunrise
05:20
Sunset
20:19
Twilight ends
22:23
Twilight begins
03:16

5-day old moon
Waxing Crescent

42%

5 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:29 13:01 20:34
Venus 03:18 09:48 16:18
Moon 10:57 18:10 01:10
Mars 10:45 17:46 00:46
Jupiter 06:29 14:01 21:33
Saturn 02:19 08:16 14:12
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

31 May 2025  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
01 Aug 2025  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
05 Jun 2026  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
14 Aug 2026  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Fairfield

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41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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