© 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 2050–2051 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.6.

From San Diego , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 39° above the horizon at sunrise on 8 Dec 2050.

Begin typing the name of a town near to you, and then select the town from the list of options which appear below.

2050–2051 morning apparition of Venus

16 Oct 2050 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
20 Nov 2050 – Venus at greatest brightness
08 Dec 2050 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
26 Dec 2050 – Venus at dichotomy
27 Dec 2050 – Venus at greatest elongation west

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

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
19 Oct 2053 – 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 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 13h09m00s 7°01'S Virgo 40.8"
Sun 15h43m 19°42'S Libra 32'22"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 29 Mar 2024

The sky on 29 March 2024
Sunrise
06:37
Sunset
19:06
Twilight ends
20:29
Twilight begins
05:14

19-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

81%

19 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:13 13:50 20:27
Venus 05:59 11:50 17:40
Moon 22:33 03:45 08:52
Mars 05:12 10:47 16:21
Jupiter 08:29 15:14 22:00
Saturn 05:36 11:18 16:59
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

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
14 Mar 2052  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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32.72°N
117.16°W
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