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Venus in the Dawn Heaven as “Morgenstern” in September 2023, as from Strathmore, Alberta, Canada. | Credit: Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images
In the early morning that go to work and school before sunrise, there is probably an extremely light star -like object that appear low in the eastern sky shortly before the sun. What is astonishing is that this object was not there a few weeks ago, but now it is literally noticeable from such a brilliance that commuters, who may travel to the eastern direction, almost attract the attention of commuters to “look at me!”
This radiant object is the planet Venus. With regard to the morning visibility, it has now “risen in a literal and figurative sense that rises on this occasion”.
After this dazzling planet has done a great show in our evening sky in the past autumn and a large part of the winter season, it will now organize a spectacular prerequisite for the rest of this spring, summer and until mid -autumn for the rest of this spring, summer and in mid -autumn 2025.
It is currently establishing itself as a dazzling morning lantern, which dives from the eastern horizon this week shortly after 5:00 a.m. Less than two weeks ago, on March 23, Venus almost directly swept between the sun and earth. That was the day of his inferior conjunction – his transition from one evening to a morning object. In fact, it was possible for a few days to see Venus shortly after sunset near the western horizon and shortly before sunrise the next morning near the eastern horizon.
Now it swings away from this line and accelerates in front of the earth in its faster orbit. In a telescope in April it shows a large, brilliant, beautiful crescent moon that grows all the month in the phase and shrinks at the same time.
A week after the inferior conjunction, it was far enough from the near the sun, so it rose about an hour before sunrise. By the end of April it will be a little easier to see an hour and 40 minutes in front of the sun. And from then on it will slowly climb up into the brilliance in high dawns from mid -July.
Highlight of the splendor
On Sunday morning, April 27, Venus meets in total darkness and seems in his greatest brilliance (size –4.7). In fact, Venus shines as bright as this from the end of April to early May, but astronomers now refer to this highlight of the splendor by describing the moment as the “largest illuminated expansion”.
In contrast to mercury, which seems near the full phase in its maximum brilliance, Venus seems to shine most brilliantly when it is a crescent phase. This is because Venus, when it appears full, removes far from the earth and its hard drive appears relatively small.
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Conversely, Venus appears, when the venus of the earth is much closer, its disk in an apparent size appears much larger, but now it has shrunk into a very thin crescent moon that does not reflect as much sunlight on earth as an almost full venus. So astronomers have come up with one compromise With regard to the geometry of the light angle of the sun on the disc of Venus compared to its removal from the earth to determine the time of the greatest brilliance of Venus. This moment comes when Venus as about 25 percent illuminated crescent phase occurs from a distance of about 41 million miles from the earth.
After Handbook of the observer for 2025 From the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, this moment comes on April 27 at 17 hours UT or 1 p.m.
In order to give them an idea of how radiant Venus will be at this time, it will be almost 20 times the brightest of all stars. If you live in a rural location without mixing slight pollution, you can easily see that it throws a visible shadow. If you follow it directly through sunrise, it becomes clear against the blue daily sky in full daylight as a tiny white spot.
An illustration of Venus, as will appear on April 27, 2025 during its largest illuminated expansion. | Credit: star night
The phases of Venus
Now there is also a good time to examine Venus’s crescent moon in a telescope or even in a binoculars. Constant assembly for binoculars – even only against the side of a tree – can make the difference in the world. In fact, there are some people with such an acute vision that claim that they can see Venus’s crescent moon without telescope or binoculars.
If you want to test your own visual perception on Venus, the best time to try this would be to try this during the bright dusk, e.g. B. 15 to 30 minutes before sunrise. At that time, Venus will appear with far less glare against the background sky, which gives her eyes a better opportunity to perceive its shape.
On the weekend of April 4, the Venus crescent will be illuminated a slim 7%, but until the end of the month it will be “fattened” 29%. As a function of the earth, its disc size is shrunk by almost a third.
With a telescope on May 21, it appears about half as large as this week, while its current slim crescent moon shape will almost thicken to almost imitate a “crescent moon”. In addition, Venus lifts a little higher into the eastern sky every morning, since it gradually increases its angular distance from the sun in the sky.
If you need a telescope or binoculars to watch Venus or something else in the night sky, our guides can now help for the best binoculars and the best telescope offers. Our leaders to the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography can also help you to record the next Skywatching view. And don’t miss our tips on how you can photograph the planets!
Summer of meaning
On June 1st, Venus will reach her greatest western stretch, 46 degrees from the sun. And yet it will increase up to this point just a few minutes before dawn. But this situation will change noticeably because Venus will spend the summer to go a northern way over the Zodian constellations that are well north of the sky equator.
On June 28, it will enter the constellation of Taurus, which will come by July 3, then north of the V-shaped Hyades Star cluster and the bright orange star Aldebaran in the week of July 7, far south of the famous Pleijades star cluster.
As a result, Venus will increase noticeably from June from June: From June 21 to August 5, it will increase before 3 a.m. And it will reach its peak for this current morning appearance between July 8th and 21st if it increases in full darkness at least one hour before the first light of dawn. Half an hour before sunrise it is very respectable 25 degrees above the Eastern nortal horizon. Her fist held together, which is held at arm length, measures about 10 degrees wide, so that Venus will appear “two and a half fists” at this hour.
Venus, as it appears in April 2025 sky through a powerful telescope. | Credit: star night
Close encounters with the moon, the stars and planets
Venus will also have encounters with two bright planets during its morning run. At the beginning of April you can use it to find a much dimmer Saturn. About an hour before sunrise, the eastern horizon for Venus looks deep and after the find found the Saturn is about 3.7 degrees on the right. However, you can need binoculars to see the ring planet against the bright sky of dusk, since it only appears a fraction of Venus.
In the second week of August it will be a completely different story than Venus merges with the largest planet in our solar system: Mighty Jupiter. Venus will come closer to “Big Jupe” to the south and west on three consecutive morning – 11, 12th and 13th August. On August 12th they will appear closest with Venus, which appear less than one degree for Jupiter at the bottom right and create the effect of a dazzling “double planet” – a wonderful sight.
In September, Venus will have a close conjunction with one of the 21 brightest stars in the sky, bluish regulus in the constellation Leo the Lion. Make sure you will stop your alarm clock on September 19 at the latest. On this morning that looks deep to the east, Venus will not only pass about half a degree to the left of the regulus, but also a similar distance over and left of Venus is a pretty, careless crescent moon that is out of the crescent after a warm Kelestial table!
What goes up has to come down
After Venus reached his peak in mid -July in terms of the morning visibility, he rises a long, slow slide back into the sun and rises every morning from July 21 to October 25th about 1.7 minutes later. Until then, Venus will occur if dawn breaks about 90 minutes before sunrise.
Venus will continue to lower and will increasingly rise later in the rest of the autumn. It will rise less than an hour before sunrise by the end of November and will ultimately disappear into the bright Dawn Twilight by the beginning of December. Venus will then make a kind of “winter sabbatical” and only occur around March of the next year when a new evening circle will start.
In the coming days, if one of your friends or relatives notice that you have seen a “strange UFO” on the way to work or school, you can now put them in order.
It is not et, it is only Venus.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History MagazinePresent Heaven and telescope and other publications.
