Venus reaches its point of greatest western elongation on June 1, at which time the dazzling ‘morning star’ will be at its most distant point from the sun in Earth‘s sky during its pre-dawn apparition.
The rocky planet will hit the orbital milestone at 00.00 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT) on June 1, while Venus is below the horizon for skywatchers in the U.S, according to stargazing website EarthSky.org. At this time, Venus will be separated from the sun by a gulf of 46 degrees along the line of the ecliptic, which is the apparent path taken by the sun and planets as they journey through the constellations crowding the night sky.
The best time to spot Venus for stargazers in the U.S. is during the pre-dawn hours on May 31 and June 1, when the planet will appear as a bright, magnitude -4.3 morning star rising over the eastern horizon, easily visible to the naked eye (remember, the brightest objects in the sky have lower or negative magnitudes). You’ll need a telescope with an aperture of at least 60mm (2.4″) to see the planet’s disk, which appears half lit at this point in the Venutian orbit, according to telescope-maker Celestron.
Venus has been a regular fixture in the morning sky following its inferior conjunction on March 22, when it passed between Earth and the sun, marking an end to its evening appearances. Its tight orbit around the sun ensures that Venus never strays far from the horizon, at least in comparison to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, whose distant orbits allow them to be seen throughout the night when conditions allow.
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While June 1 may mark the point of greatest separation between the sun and Venus during its morning apparition, it won’t be the highest that the planet will rise above the eastern horizon over the coming months. This is because a planet’s altitude in the sky is dependent in part on the inclination of the ecliptic relative to the horizon, which shifts throughout the year due to Earth’s wobbling orbit.
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