© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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The sky at

Venus will reach half phase in its 2039 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Ashburn , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 39° above the horizon at sunset on 5 May 2039.

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2039 evening apparition of Venus

17 Oct 2038 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
05 May 2039 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
30 May 2039 – Venus at dichotomy
30 May 2039 – Venus at greatest elongation east
04 Jul 2039 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

08 Aug 2036 – Morning apparition
24 Oct 2037 – Evening apparition
15 Mar 2038 – Morning apparition
30 May 2039 – Evening apparition
19 Oct 2039 – Morning apparition
05 Jan 2041 – Evening apparition
26 May 2041 – 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 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 07h44m50s 24°01'N Gemini 23.4"
Sun 04h27m 21°43'N Taurus 31'33"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:58
Sunset
19:29
Twilight ends
21:00
Twilight begins
05:27

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

86%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:29 14:14 20:59
Venus 06:24 12:10 17:56
Moon 22:00 03:15 08:23
Mars 05:43 11:09 16:35
Jupiter 08:42 15:39 22:36
Saturn 06:07 11:43 17:19
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

05 May 2039  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
30 May 2039  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
17 Oct 2039  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
19 Oct 2039  –  Venus at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Ashburn

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39.04°N
77.49°W
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