How and when to see the rare and dazzling dual visibility of Venus this week
Venus, our planet of wealth and worth, will be double-dipping and max-shinning day and night this week.Venus is known as the “Morning Star” or the “Evening Star,” depending on when it appears.
Yet this week, in the Northern Hemisphere, Venus will be both, as the planet will be visible before sunrise and after sunset from March 18-21.Known as the dual visibility of Venus, this rare event won’t happen again until 2033.
Get it while you can, folks.Venus has an elongated orbit that keeps it close to the sun from our perspective on Earth.
Brilliant to behold, Venus is one of the few celestial objects visible in broad daylight.In late March in the Northern Hemisphere, Venus’s ecliptic sits low at dawn and makes a steep angle with the horizon in the evening.
This means the sun sets quickly at night and rises slowly in the morning.This double-time, twice-in-one-day visibility happens when the inferior conjunction between Venus and the sun coincides with the planet’s high ecliptic latitude.
Translation: When viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, Venus isn’t perfectly aligned with the sun but slightly above it.As a result, the planet of love and loot will appear both before sunrise and after sunset for a few days.To see Venus as the Morning Star, look east just before sunrise.To see Venus as the Evening Star, look west shortly after sunset.To make sure you’re pointed in the right direction, consider using a stargazing app.
Venus’ dual visibility is best observed in low-latitude and tropical regions.Interestingly, and according to Star Walk, in some Arctic regions, where the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon during this time of year, Venus could appear and disappear without the sun ever coming into view.Astrologically speaking, Venus is currently retrograde in the bold b–ch, burn-it-down just to build-it-up sign of Aries.As Aries rules the head, the blood and our sense of vitality, it is avowed first and foremost to live full, free and without ap...