© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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Venus will reach half phase in its 2236 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.3.

From Los Angeles , this apparition will not be one of the most prominent but prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 35° above the horizon at sunrise on 1 Aug 2236.

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2236 morning apparition of Venus

03 Apr 2236 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
05 May 2236 – Venus at greatest brightness
12 Jun 2236 – Venus at greatest elongation west
13 Jun 2236 – Venus at dichotomy
01 Aug 2236 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
18 Jan 2237 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

15 Jun 2234 – Evening apparition
04 Nov 2234 – Morning apparition
22 Jan 2236 – Evening apparition
12 Jun 2236 – Morning apparition
26 Aug 2237 – Evening apparition
15 Jan 2238 – Morning apparition
03 Apr 2239 – 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 02h08m50s 10°14'N Cetus 23.6"
Sun 05h13m 22°58'N Taurus 31'30"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 22 Nov 2024

The sky on 22 November 2024
Sunrise
06:30
Sunset
16:45
Twilight ends
18:12
Twilight begins
05:02

21-day old moon
Waning Crescent

44%

21 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:17 13:06 17:54
Venus 09:50 14:39 19:28
Moon 22:39 05:37 12:27
Mars 21:10 04:14 11:18
Jupiter 17:46 00:53 08:00
Saturn 13:02 18:40 00:19
All times shown in PST.

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

12 Jun 2236  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
01 Aug 2236  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
19 Jun 2237  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
26 Aug 2237  –  Venus at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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