© 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 2074–2075 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.6.

From Ashburn , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 37° above the horizon at sunrise on 30 Nov 2074.

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2074–2075 morning apparition of Venus

09 Oct 2074 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
13 Nov 2074 – Venus at greatest brightness
29 Nov 2074 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
19 Dec 2074 – Venus at dichotomy
19 Dec 2074 – Venus at greatest elongation west

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

26 Dec 2072 – Evening apparition
17 May 2073 – Morning apparition
31 Jul 2074 – Evening apparition
19 Dec 2074 – Morning apparition
07 Mar 2076 – Evening apparition
27 Jul 2076 – Morning apparition
12 Oct 2077 – 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 12h40m30s 4°51'S Virgo 40.5"
Sun 15h12m 17°54'S Libra 32'19"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 29 Mar 2024

The sky on 29 March 2024
Sunrise
06:56
Sunset
19:30
Twilight ends
21:01
Twilight begins
05:25

19-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

81%

19 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:25 14:12 20:58
Venus 06:23 12:11 17:59
Moon 23:04 04:01 08:52
Mars 05:41 11:08 16:35
Jupiter 08:39 15:36 22:33
Saturn 06:03 11:39 17:15
All times shown in EDT.

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

31 Jul 2074  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
30 Nov 2074  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
19 Dec 2074  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
07 Mar 2076  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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39.04°N
77.49°W
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