© 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 2162 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Seattle , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 30° above the horizon at sunset on 10 May 2162.

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

2162 evening apparition of Venus

24 Nov 2161 – Venus at superior solar conjunction
10 May 2162 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
04 Jul 2162 – Venus at dichotomy
06 Jul 2162 – Venus at greatest elongation east
11 Aug 2162 – Venus at greatest brightness

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

14 Sep 2159 – Morning apparition
01 Dec 2160 – Evening apparition
21 Apr 2161 – Morning apparition
06 Jul 2162 – Evening apparition
24 Nov 2162 – Morning apparition
11 Feb 2164 – Evening apparition
02 Jul 2164 – 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 09h55m30s 13°50'N Leo 23.4"
Sun 06h47m 22°58'N Gemini 31'27"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:52
Sunset
19:33
Twilight ends
21:20
Twilight begins
05:06

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

85%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:12 14:13 21:14
Venus 06:28 12:10 17:51
Moon 22:29 03:20 08:01
Mars 05:54 11:08 16:22
Jupiter 08:21 15:38 22:55
Saturn 06:15 11:42 17:09
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

10 May 2162  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
06 Jul 2162  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
08 Nov 2162  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
24 Nov 2162  –  Venus at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Share

Seattle

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

47.61°N
122.33°W
PDT

Color scheme