© 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 2033 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 31 Jul 2033.

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2033 morning apparition of Venus

20 Mar 2033 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
21 Apr 2033 – Venus at greatest brightness
29 May 2033 – Venus at greatest elongation west
30 May 2033 – Venus at dichotomy
31 Jul 2033 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
03 Jan 2034 – 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
02 May 203305:4604:0219°east-4.532%
12 May 203305:3403:4520°east-4.439%
22 May 203305:2503:3021°east-4.445%
01 Jun 203305:1903:1622°east-4.351%
11 Jun 203305:1603:0424°east-4.256%
21 Jun 203305:1702:5426°east-4.260%
01 Jul 203305:2102:4628°east-4.165%
11 Jul 203305:2702:4229°east-4.169%
21 Jul 203305:3502:4330°east-4.072%
31 Jul 203305:4402:4931°east-4.076%
10 Aug 203305:5403:0030°east-4.079%
20 Aug 203306:0403:1530°east-4.082%
30 Aug 203306:1403:3428°east-4.084%
09 Sep 203306:2403:5627°east-3.987%
19 Sep 203306:3404:1825°east-3.989%
29 Sep 203306:4404:4122°east-3.991%
09 Oct 203306:5505:0420°east-3.993%
19 Oct 203307:0605:2717°east-3.995%

Altitude of Venus at sunrise

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

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
01 Jan 2035 – Morning apparition
19 Mar 2036 – 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 01h28m40s 7°02'N Pisces 23.7"
Sun 04h29m 21°47'N Taurus 31'33"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 30 May 2033

The sky on 30 May 2033
Sunrise
05:20
Sunset
20:17
Twilight ends
22:20
Twilight begins
03:18

2-day old moon
Waxing Crescent

8%

2 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:40 14:23 22:05
Venus 03:20 09:48 16:16
Moon 07:37 14:55 22:11
Mars 22:48 03:13 07:38
Jupiter 01:24 06:51 12:18
Saturn 07:15 14:45 22:14
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

29 May 2033  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
31 Jul 2033  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
04 Jun 2034  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
12 Aug 2034  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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41.14°N
73.26°W
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