© 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 2104–2105 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.7.

From San Diego , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 38° above the horizon at sunset on 14 Jan 2105.

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2104–2105 evening apparition of Venus

18 Dec 2104 – Venus at greatest elongation east
18 Dec 2104 – Venus at dichotomy
14 Jan 2105 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
24 Jan 2105 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the brightness of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

25 Feb 2102 – Morning apparition
12 May 2103 – Evening apparition
01 Oct 2103 – Morning apparition
18 Dec 2104 – Evening apparition
08 May 2105 – Morning apparition
22 Jul 2106 – Evening apparition
11 Dec 2106 – 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 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 22h52m10s 4°13'S Aquarius 41.4"
Sun 20h23m 19°19'S Capricornus 32'29"

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

85%

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

14 Jan 2105  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
08 May 2105  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
17 Jul 2105  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
03 Jun 2106  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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San Diego

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32.72°N
117.16°W
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