© 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 2153 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Fairfield , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but , reaching a peak altitude of 25° above the horizon at sunrise on 20 Jul 2153.

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2153 morning apparition of Venus

13 Feb 2153 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
16 Mar 2153 – Venus at greatest brightness
24 Apr 2153 – Venus at greatest elongation west
25 Apr 2153 – Venus at dichotomy
20 Jul 2153 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
27 Nov 2153 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

28 Apr 2151 – Evening apparition
17 Sep 2151 – Morning apparition
03 Dec 2152 – Evening apparition
24 Apr 2153 – Morning apparition
08 Jul 2154 – Evening apparition
26 Nov 2154 – Morning apparition
13 Feb 2156 – 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 23h13m20s 5°05'S Aquarius 24.0"
Sun 02h05m 12°41'N Aries 31'48"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 23 Nov 2024

The sky on 23 November 2024
Sunrise
06:48
Sunset
16:27
Twilight ends
18:04
Twilight begins
05:11

22-day old moon
Waning Crescent

34%

22 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:37 13:04 17:30
Venus 10:14 14:41 19:08
Moon 23:20 06:15 12:58
Mars 20:49 04:12 11:35
Jupiter 17:22 00:49 08:16
Saturn 13:05 18:37 00:09
All times shown in EST.

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

24 Apr 2153  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
20 Jul 2153  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
22 May 2154  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
08 Jul 2154  –  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
EST

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