© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
Please wait
Loading 0/4
Click and drag to rotate
Mouse wheel to zoom in/out
Touch with mouse to dismiss
The sky at

Venus will reach half phase in its 2127 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Cambridge , this apparition will be exceptionally well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 42° above the horizon at sunrise on 30 Sep 2127.

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

2127 morning apparition of Venus

15 Jul 2127 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
19 Aug 2127 – Venus at greatest brightness
23 Sep 2127 – Venus at dichotomy
24 Sep 2127 – Venus at greatest elongation west
30 Sep 2127 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
06 May 2128 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

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
15 Jul 2130 – 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 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 08h55m40s 15°15'N Cancer 24.0"
Sun 11h53m 0°45'N Virgo 31'51"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 19 Apr 2024

The sky on 19 April 2024
Sunrise
05:54
Sunset
19:30
Twilight ends
21:14
Twilight begins
04:10

11-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

84%

11 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:25 11:54 18:22
Venus 05:34 11:58 18:21
Moon 15:23 22:06 04:38
Mars 04:35 10:21 16:07
Jupiter 06:57 14:06 21:16
Saturn 04:24 10:00 15:36
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

Share

Cambridge

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

42.38°N
71.11°W
EDT

Color scheme