© 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 2049 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 30° above the horizon at sunrise on 30 Jul 2049.

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2049 morning apparition of Venus

15 Mar 2049 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
16 Apr 2049 – Venus at greatest brightness
24 May 2049 – Venus at greatest elongation west
25 May 2049 – Venus at dichotomy
30 Jul 2049 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
29 Dec 2049 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

28 May 2047 – Evening apparition
16 Oct 2047 – Morning apparition
02 Jan 2049 – Evening apparition
24 May 2049 – Morning apparition
07 Aug 2050 – Evening apparition
27 Dec 2050 – Morning apparition
14 Mar 2052 – 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 01h10m40s 5°29'N Pisces 23.7"
Sun 04h09m 21°00'N Taurus 31'34"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 25 Nov 2024

The sky on 25 November 2024
Sunrise
06:50
Sunset
16:26
Twilight ends
18:04
Twilight begins
05:13

24-day old moon
Waning Crescent

21%

24 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:30 12:58 17:26
Venus 10:15 14:43 19:11
Moon 01:23 07:34 13:35
Mars 20:42 04:05 11:28
Jupiter 17:13 00:40 08:07
Saturn 12:57 18:29 00:01
All times shown in EST.

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

24 May 2049  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
30 Jul 2049  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
02 Jun 2050  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
07 Aug 2050  –  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
EST

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