© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at greatest brightness

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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The sky at

Venus will reach its greatest brightness in its 2034 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.6.

From Fairfield , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 27° above the horizon at sunset on 4 Jun 2034.

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2034 evening apparition of Venus

04 Jun 2034 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
10 Aug 2034 – Venus at dichotomy
12 Aug 2034 – Venus at greatest elongation east
20 Sep 2034 – Venus at greatest brightness

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

Date Sun
sets at
Venus
sets at
Altitude
at sunset
Direction
at sunset
Mag Phase
06 Mar 203417:4818:5512°west-3.997%
16 Mar 203418:5920:1814°west-3.996%
26 Mar 203419:1020:4217°west-3.994%
05 Apr 203419:2121:0719°west-3.993%
15 Apr 203419:3121:3121°west-3.991%
25 Apr 203419:4221:5623°west-3.989%
05 May 203419:5322:1825°west-3.986%
15 May 203420:0322:3726°west-4.084%
25 May 203420:1222:5127°west-4.081%
04 Jun 203420:2022:5927°west-4.078%
14 Jun 203420:2623:0027°west-4.074%
24 Jun 203420:2822:5526°west-4.071%
04 Jul 203420:2822:4525°west-4.167%
14 Jul 203420:2422:3223°west-4.163%
24 Jul 203420:1722:1521°west-4.258%
03 Aug 203420:0621:5520°west-4.354%
13 Aug 203419:5421:3318°west-4.349%
23 Aug 203419:3921:1015°south-west-4.443%

Altitude of Venus at sunset

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

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
08 Aug 2036 – Morning 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 13h56m40s 18°28'S Virgo 41.9"
Sun 11h48m 1°14'N Virgo 31'50"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 20 Sep 2034

The sky on 20 September 2034
Sunrise
06:35
Sunset
18:53
Twilight ends
20:26
Twilight begins
05:01

8-day old moon
Waxing Crescent

49%

8 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:55 14:16 19:36
Venus 09:56 14:51 19:46
Moon 13:47 18:51 23:54
Mars 05:41 12:06 18:31
Jupiter 19:23 01:35 07:46
Saturn 01:55 09:12 16:29
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

12 Aug 2034  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
09 Dec 2034  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
01 Jan 2035  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
19 Mar 2036  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Fairfield

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Longitude:
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41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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