© 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 2042 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.6.

From Washington , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 29° above the horizon at sunset on 10 Jun 2042.

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2042 evening apparition of Venus

09 Jun 2042 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
07 Aug 2042 – Venus at dichotomy
09 Aug 2042 – Venus at greatest elongation east
17 Sep 2042 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

19 Oct 2039 – Morning apparition
05 Jan 2041 – Evening apparition
26 May 2041 – Morning apparition
09 Aug 2042 – Evening apparition
29 Dec 2042 – Morning apparition
16 Mar 2044 – Evening apparition
06 Aug 2044 – 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 13h47m00s 17°32'S Virgo 41.7"
Sun 11h39m 2°14'N Virgo 31'49"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
07:22
Sunset
19:52
Twilight ends
21:21
Twilight begins
05:54

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

86%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:55 14:38 21:20
Venus 06:47 12:34 18:22
Moon 22:26 03:44 08:54
Mars 06:04 11:33 17:02
Jupiter 09:10 16:03 22:56
Saturn 06:29 12:06 17:44
All times shown in MDT.

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

09 Aug 2042  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
10 Dec 2042  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
29 Dec 2042  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
16 Mar 2044  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Washington

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37.13°N
113.51°W
MDT

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