© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at superior solar conjunction

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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The sky at

Venus will pass very close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it around the far side of the solar system from the Earth.

This occurs once in every synodic cycle of the planet (584 days), and marks the end of Venus's apparition in the morning sky and its transition to become an evening object over the next few weeks.

At closest approach, Venus will appear at a separation of only 1°25' from the Sun, making it totally unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun's glare.

Venus will also pass apogee – the time when it is most distant from the Earth – at around the same time, since it will lie exactly opposite to the Earth in the Solar System. It will move to a distance of 1.72 AU from the Earth, making it appear small and very distant. If it could be observed, it would measure 9.7 arcsec in diameter, whilst appearing completely illuminated.

The position of Venus at the moment it passes solar conjunction will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 23h36m50s 4°03'S Aquarius 9.7"
Sun 23h34m 2°44'S Pisces 32'10"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:40
Sunset
19:13
Twilight ends
20:47
Twilight begins
05:06

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

85%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:08 13:57 20:46
Venus 06:08 11:53 17:38
Moon 21:47 02:58 08:00
Mars 05:29 10:52 16:16
Jupiter 08:21 15:22 22:23
Saturn 05:52 11:26 17:00
All times shown in EDT.

Warning

Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.

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

27 Aug 2060  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
09 Jul 2061  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
17 Oct 2061  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
05 Feb 2062  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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