Venus will steal the show in the night sky throughout 2023
The planet Venus is the undisputed star of the night skies this year.
Venus, now in our southwestern sky for about two hours after sunset, is almost like a sequined stellar showgirl, currently starring in her sparkling performance every night. Viewed during evening twilight, this planet appears dazzlingly bright with the naked eye and even more so with binoculars.
For those who monitor it week after week in telescopes, it is always changing and fascinating. More on that a bit later.
Related: Venus: The scorching second planet from the sun
Summit meetings with other worlds
On Sunday (January 22) a fairly close conjunction will take place between Venus and the ringed planet Saturn.
Then, on the night of March 1, Venus and Jupiter will carry out another celestial rendezvous, appearing only half a degree away. They will appear side by side, Venus shining to the right of Jupiter. At magnitude -4.0, Venus will be about six times brighter than its yellow neighbor.
Less than a week earlier, a 2.5-day crescent moon will form a conspicuous narrow isosceles triangle, with Jupiter and the moon only 1.5 degrees apart, while Venus sits 7 degrees below them both. Here’s a challenge for hobbyist photographers: try to capture the two planets, the narrow swathe of the crescent moon (only 9% illuminated by the sun), with perhaps some Earthshine on its unilluminated portion, and any glare residual twilight outlining the western horizon. .
Read more: What time is the conjunction of Venus and Saturn on Sunday (January 22)?
Staying up late with Venus
This is going to evolve into an exceptional evening appearance of Venus. On January 13, the planet set about 90 minutes after sunset and, for the first time, just after the end of evening twilight in a completely dark sky. From then on, nightly observers for the next few weeks and months will note that it is making an unusual excursion into the deep night sky, setting about 3½ hours later. Sun for the third week of May.
Many astronomy books will often say that Venus generally disappears from view around midnight, making it that much harder to believe that Venus will stay up until 11:45 p.m. middle of May. . This will be after midnight for those who live in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Des Moines, and Salt Lake City. In the most extreme cases, it could be after 12:30 am on daylight saving clocks in some cities that are well west of their standard time meridians, such as Boise, Bismarck, Indianapolis, and Flint.
The show continues until early summer.
On May 21, look for Venus shining beneath the “Twin Stars” of the constellation Gemini, Castor and Pollux. At the top left of the Gemini twins shines Mars and far away to the lower right of Venus will be a thin crescent moon. The next night, the moon will have moved closer to Venus.
On June 4 it reaches its greatest eastern elongation. So it will be 45 degrees from the sun, one eighth of a turn. the ecliptic. At magnitude -4.3, the planet will certainly be conspicuous, nearly twice as bright as it appears to us now.
Immediately after sunset on June 21, the first day of summer, look to the west-northwest for a beautiful crescent moon accompanied to its lower left by Venus.
Between now and July, repeated observation of Venus with a small telescope will show the full range of its phases and disk sizes. The planet currently shows a tiny, dazzling gibbous disk (93% illuminated). It will become noticeably less humpy in mid-spring.
In early June, Venus reaches dichotomy (showing a “crescent” shape). Then, for the rest of spring through early summer, it shows an ever-larger crescent as it swings near the Land. In fact, those who use telescopes will notice that as the distance between Earth and Venus is decreasing, the apparent size of Venus’s disk will grow, doubling its current size by May 27. When it has doubled in size again on July 16, its large crescent shape should be easily discernible even with constantly held 7-power binoculars.
Transition to the skies before dawn
The time when Venus reaches the pinnacle of its great brightness is halfway between greatest elongation and conjunction with the sun, on July 7, when it reaches a staggering magnitude of -4.7. With this burst of glory, Venus will quickly slide into the sun’s glare, setting just 2 hours after the sun and just before the end of evening twilight tonight.
However, by the end of July, it will set only about 25 minutes after sunset and will have given up its tenure as a prominent nocturnal object.
But the “Venus Show” won’t end, as a repeat begins in mid-August, this time in the morning sky and with the sequence of events reversed, peaking in brightness again on September 19, shining like a lighthouse in the sky eastern sky before dawn.
On November 9, be sure to set your alarm clock for 5 a.m. attending morning services will see Venus shine as a brilliant “star in the east” rising almost three hours before the sun.
Truly this is the year of Venus!
If you don’t have all the equipment you need to see Venus this year, our guides to the best telescopes Y best binoculars are a great place to start. If you’re looking to take photos of Venus or anything else in the night sky, check out our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography Y best lenses for astrophotography.
Editor’s note: If you take a great photo of Venus this year and want to share it with Space.com readers, please send your photos, comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao is an instructor and guest speaker at New York’s hayden planetarium. write about astronomy natural history journalthe farmers almanac and other publications. follow us @Espaciodotcom (opens in a new tab)or in Facebook (opens in a new tab) Y instagram (opens in a new tab).