Venus' apparition: mid and far-north latitudes

Event Date: April 4th
Time: 7:35(.41) PM *home time

Brief

Venus has had an outstanding apparition over the last 2 months, setting nearly four hours after the Sun for much of that period.  Apparition often refers to a celestial body's altitude when rising before--or setting after--the Sun.  Most commonly, Mercury, Venus and a crescent Moon have apparition talked about, since their separations from the Sun often change more frequently over a given period of time than the outer planets.  As seen from our hemisphere, the more north the inner planets and Moon are of the Sun when within 50º of it, the more impressive they can appear: they are further out of atmospheric pollution, leading to less of a "wavy" (turbulent) appearance through optical aid. Venus' phase can be more easily detected in a telescope when away from the pollution.  Mercury, although small and featureless as seen from Earth, can be admired by being less elusive for a limited number of days, or even weeks if far enough north of the Sun.  Similarly to Venus, it has its phases which change more quickly given Mercury's closer distance from the Sun.

Detailed

   As shown in the first image, I put the altitude and celestial grids in, to show how Venus is still high at official Sunset time, and its curve to the horizon respectively.

 Venus is less than a degree lower than its 44º peak March 27th, reached at official Sunset time.  Keep in mind that viewers at different latitudes, even if all in the northern hemisphere, will have seen Venus at different apparitions even on that date. the further south towards the equator, Venus appears almost directly "on top" of the setting Sun; sharing azimuth, and being just about equal in altitude as the greatest elongation of Venus, which also happened in March (46.0º this time).  The further north a person is viewing however, the lower Venus would seem at official Sunset.  Why?  The Sun takes much longer to set there than it does here during most dates between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes in that order.  As a result, Venus is lower by the time the Sun sets.  At global latitudes near the arctic circle, where the Sun is below the horizon for a smaller number of hours on this date, Venus would not set at all; its current declination of 24º is already further than that of the Sun at any given time of year.  In the partially lit sky after the Sun goes down, Venus would seemingly hover above the horizon, with a very gradual rate of getting near to the horizon. Depending on location and its declination, there are times of year when Venus will not set, and be temporary circumpolar.  As an example of this, the second image has a view from Salekhard, Russia, which lies closest to the arctic circle for all of the listings in my software's table of locations.  This is one of the few times I have ever switched my global location over the years of doing this journal pre-blog.  With the celestial grid included once again, the time is set as shown above.  The Sun at this location, spends a little over 14 hours above the horizon today, and never sets during select dates on either side of the summer solstice.
Once again, as the celestial grid shows, Venus is just far enough north now, that it doesn't set.  This can also be figured out, by knowing the latitude of the arctic circle: 66º 33' 44".  Venus' declination of 23º 57' 46" plus the arctic circle's latitude sums up to slightly over 90º.  About a week ago, when Venus was declination 23º 26' 16" (90º minus the arctic circle) it first started becoming circumpolar.
The math here isn't too important to remember, if we actually go to the locations at certain dates around the time of the summer solstice and witness the Sun giving off lots of light during "late night" hours.
Finally, as shown below, Venus is moved all the way to the left, to show the northern azimuth at right; it is there, that Venus reaches its lowest altitude at 2:31.43 AM local time for April 5th.  After being of about altitude 33º at official Sunset time for Salekhard of 6:41 PM, Venus' altitude is only 35' arc-minutes at 2:31 AM as it "bottoms out"!

*click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.