Venus reaches its greatest western elongation (46°) from the Sun at midnight EDT. Earth’s sister planet is now visible in the early-morning sky, and today Venus rises in the east at 3:30 A.M. local daylight time — roughly two hours before the Sun. That gives observers plenty of time to view the bright morning planet, now shining at magnitude –4.4.
Venus is now in southeastern Pisces. It’s the brightest object in the sky, impossible to miss. Through a telescope, the planet’s disk stretches 24” and is 49 percent lit. Tomorrow, the planet officially reaches dichotomy, when it is exactly half illuminated. But see what you think this morning — how much of it do you judge is lit? How close or far is it from half?
In the late 1700s, amateur astronomer Johann Schröter noted that Venus often appeared to reach dichotomy a few days before or after calculations showed it would. Whether it was early or late depended on its elongation — while at western elongation, as it is now, it generally appeared to reach dichotomy a few days later than predicted. Now called the Schröter effect, astronomers still aren’t sure why this occurs, though it’s likely due to optical illusions caused by the way sunlight reflects off the planet’s thick clouds or in the way our eyes perceive the planet through our own atmosphere.
Make sure to return to the morning sky for a few more days to see when you feel Venus truly reaches dichotomy!
Sunrise: 5:34 A.M.
Sunset: 8:22 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:04 A.M.
Moonset: 12:19 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (26%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full Sky This Week column.
