© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at greatest brightness

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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Venus will reach its greatest brightness in its 2031–2032 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.5.

From Fairfield , this apparition will be exceptionally well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 42° above the horizon at sunrise on 19 Oct 2031.

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2031–2032 morning apparition of Venus

10 Aug 2031 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
15 Sep 2031 – Venus at greatest brightness
19 Oct 2031 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
20 Oct 2031 – Venus at dichotomy
21 Oct 2031 – Venus at greatest elongation west

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
20 Aug 203106:0405:13east-4.24%
30 Aug 203106:1404:1721°east-4.412%
09 Sep 203106:2403:3930°east-4.521%
19 Sep 203106:3403:1736°east-4.529%
29 Sep 203106:4403:0739°east-4.537%
09 Oct 203106:5403:0641°south-east-4.543%
19 Oct 203107:0503:1142°south-east-4.449%
29 Oct 203107:1703:2241°south-east-4.354%
08 Nov 203106:2902:3640°south-east-4.359%
18 Nov 203106:4102:5238°south-east-4.264%
28 Nov 203106:5203:1035°south-east-4.267%
08 Dec 203107:0203:3032°south-east-4.171%
18 Dec 203107:1003:5129°south-east-4.174%
28 Dec 203107:1404:1225°south-east-4.177%
07 Jan 203207:1504:3422°south-east-4.080%

Altitude of Venus at sunrise

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

27 Oct 2029 – Evening apparition
18 Mar 2030 – Morning apparition
02 Jun 2031 – Evening apparition
21 Oct 2031 – Morning apparition
07 Jan 2033 – Evening apparition
29 May 2033 – Morning apparition
12 Aug 2034 – 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 brightness

Venus's brightness depends on two factors: its closeness to the Earth, and its phase. Its 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 reaches its brightest when it is still a crescent – with less than half of its disk illuminated. This is because it is much closer to the Earth during its crescent phases than at other times.

As a result, during evening apparitions, Venus reaches maximum brightness a few days after it is at greatest separation from the Sun, which always coincides with it showing half-phase (dichotomy).

Conversely, during morning apparitions, Venus reaches maximum brightness a few days before it is at greatest separation from the Sun.

Venus's position

The coordinates of Venus when it reaches its greatest brightness will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 08h56m50s 12°04'N Cancer 38.3"
Sun 11h32m 2°56'N Leo 31'48"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 15 Sep 2031

The sky on 15 September 2031
Sunrise
06:30
Sunset
19:02
Twilight ends
20:36
Twilight begins
04:55

28-day old moon
Waning Crescent

0%

28 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:51 12:21 18:52
Venus 03:25 10:11 16:57
Moon 05:22 11:50 18:11
Mars 13:27 17:58 22:28
Jupiter 13:54 18:31 23:08
Saturn 23:17 06:42 14:07
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

02 Jun 2031  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
19 Oct 2031  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
21 Oct 2031  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
07 Jan 2033  –  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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