© 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 2127 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Fairfield , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 41° above the horizon at sunset on 24 Apr 2127.

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2127 evening apparition of Venus

22 Sep 2126 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
24 Apr 2127 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
05 May 2127 – Venus at greatest elongation east
06 May 2127 – Venus at dichotomy
09 Jun 2127 – Venus at greatest brightness
15 Jul 2127 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

14 Jul 2124 – Morning apparition
28 Sep 2125 – Evening apparition
17 Feb 2126 – Morning apparition
05 May 2127 – Evening apparition
24 Sep 2127 – Morning apparition
11 Dec 2128 – Evening apparition
01 May 2129 – 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 05h58m00s 26°47'N Taurus 23.6"
Sun 02h46m 16°03'N Aries 31'43"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 18 Apr 2024

The sky on 18 April 2024
Sunrise
06:06
Sunset
19:36
Twilight ends
21:17
Twilight begins
04:25

10-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

79%

10 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:39 12:08 18:36
Venus 05:45 12:06 18:27
Moon 14:32 21:35 04:27
Mars 04:45 10:30 16:16
Jupiter 07:12 14:18 21:24
Saturn 04:35 10:12 15:49
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

05 May 2127  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
24 Sep 2127  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
30 Sep 2127  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
11 Dec 2128  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Fairfield

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41.14°N
73.26°W
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