© 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 2050 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From San Diego , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 31° above the horizon at sunset on 9 Jun 2050.

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2050 evening apparition of Venus

29 Dec 2049 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
09 Jun 2050 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
05 Aug 2050 – Venus at dichotomy
07 Aug 2050 – Venus at greatest elongation east
14 Sep 2050 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

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
03 Aug 2052 – 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 11h53m20s 0°04'S Virgo 23.6"
Sun 09h00m 16°59'N Cancer 31'32"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:39
Sunset
19:05
Twilight ends
20:29
Twilight begins
05:15

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

82%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:16 13:52 20:29
Venus 05:59 11:49 17:39
Moon 21:33 02:59 08:18
Mars 05:14 10:48 16:21
Jupiter 08:32 15:17 22:02
Saturn 05:40 11:21 17:02
All times shown in PDT.

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 Jun 2050  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
07 Aug 2050  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
08 Dec 2050  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
27 Dec 2050  –  Venus at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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32.72°N
117.16°W
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