Venus near superior conjunction: getting low

Event Date: January 26th

Time: 7:00 AM

Brief

   As Venus continues to move towards superior conjunction, it is also moving further south of the Sun for a short period of time.  Our star is gradually--yet more quickly each week--moving north towards the celestial equator, while Venus is still separated enough from it to be further south by a few degrees.  As Venus catches up with the Sun in both ecliptic and celestial longitude, it slowly sinks below the ecliptic and therefore, loses declination as well.  Looking below, we see Venus' orbit as it has "swung" the planet from near to far from us since June, closing in on the ecliptic and then a little south of it close the the horizon.

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

Detailed

   There are two times that Venus comes very close to--and eventually crosses--the two nodes: June and December, for ascending and descending respectively.  For the former, we witnessed that one visibly, for the last time this century, when Venus transited the Sun in early June.  Other times, when there is no transit during inferior conjunction, Venus can be as far as 8º north or south of the Sun, which usually happens during the in-between months of March and September.  In the case of this past December, Venus was still separated far enough from the Sun that there was no chance of transiting the "backside" of the Sun (from our point of view).  Also, we should keep in mind that while June and December are 6 months apart, Venus spends about 9 months on each side of the Sun from our view of directions: east and west.

   If you want to know more about transits of Venus across the Sun, or lack thereof each century, you can find that out here...interesting?  It is strange to me, that when so rare each century, that the two are so close together, at about 8 years apart.