After serving as the dominant “Evening Star” since late March, Venus is beginning its seasonal transition, sinking lower in the southwest each night before swapping roles for the morning sky before October ends.<\/p>\n
The planet recently contributed to a notable planetary alignment in June, outshining both Jupiter and Mercury. However, viewing opportunities are rapidly diminishing as its time above the horizon shortens. Skywatchers should prioritize clear western skies in the coming weeks to catch the planet while it remains visible.<\/p>\n
Venus will achieve its greatest brilliancy on September 18, reaching a magnitude of -4.8 near the horizon. Earlier that month, on September 14, observers can look for a waxing crescent moon positioned approximately 5\u00bd degrees to the left of the planet, roughly 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. By the end of the month, Venus will set just 35 minutes after sundown.<\/p>\n
This apparition has been challenging for evening observers, particularly those at mid-northern latitudes. Unlike previous evenings when the planet lingered until late night, Venus has been constrained close to the twilight glow. Around 40 degrees north latitude, the planet will sit only about 5\u00bd degrees above the horizon at sunset by month’s end.<\/p>\n
Through optical aids, Venus displays a narrowing crescent phase as its illuminated side turns away from Earth. While binoculars may reveal the shape, the planet’s low altitude often causes atmospheric distortion.<\/p>\n
Venus will fully disappear from the evening sky by early October, reaching inferior conjunction on October 24 as it passes about 6 degrees south of the sun. It is expected to reappear as a brilliant morning star in November, eventually rising high in the eastern sky prior to dawn by the winter holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Venus is fading from the twilight and will set shortly after sunset by late September. Here’s how and when to view it before it transitions to a morning object.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1057,2092,2093,573,1413,1254],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-night-sky","tag-planetary-alignment","tag-space","tag-stargazing","tag-venus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}