Planet · Solar System

Venus

Not above the horizon after darkRises 10:06 · not up after dark

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Where is Venus?

Times for LondonChange city

Below the horizon after dark tonight in Virgo. Rises 10:06.

Rises: 10:06
Highest: 14:17
Sets: 18:23
Best after dark: —

Can I see Venus tonight?

From London tonight, Venus isn’t above the horizon while the sky is dark. It rises at 10:06 and sets at 18:23, in daylight or twilight.

At magnitude −4.6 it is one of the brighter points in the sky, easy to see by eye when it’s clear.

This is position and timing only: clouds, haze and light pollution aren’t included.

When is the best time to see Venus?

Venus never strays far from the Sun, so it is only seen in twilight: in the west after sunset or in the east before sunrise. It is easiest around greatest elongation, when it is farthest from the Sun in our sky.

Upcoming greatest elongations: January 3, 2027 (morning, 47° from the Sun); March 22, 2028 (evening, 46° from the Sun); August 10, 2028 (morning, 46° from the Sun). How high it gets also depends on your latitude and the season.

What does Venus look like?

Eyes

A dazzling, steady white light, far brighter than any star. Under dark skies it can even cast faint shadows.

Binoculars

Steady binoculars can hint at a crescent when Venus is near Earth. Only observe after sunset or before sunrise, never with the Sun above the horizon.

Telescope

A featureless white disk that goes through phases, from a large thin crescent to a small gibbous shape. The clouds hide all surface detail.

What you’re likely to see, not what a space telescope photographs.

About Venus

Venus is the brightest planet and, after the Sun and the Moon, the brightest natural object in the sky. When it shines in the evening or morning twilight it is often mistaken for an aircraft landing light or a UFO.

It is nearly the same size as Earth, but it is a very different world. A crushing atmosphere of carbon dioxide traps heat, keeping the surface at about 465 °C, hotter than Mercury. Thick clouds of sulfuric acid hide the ground completely and reflect most of the sunlight that hits them, which is why Venus looks so bright.

Venus spins backwards compared with most planets, and very slowly: one rotation takes 243 Earth days, longer than its 225-day year.

Because its orbit lies inside Earth’s, Venus never appears far from the Sun. It spends months as the “evening star” in the west after sunset, then months as the “morning star” in the east before sunrise.

Radar maps from orbiting spacecraft show a surface of volcanoes, lava plains and relatively few craters. Soviet Venera landers reached the ground in the 1970s and 1980s, but none survived the heat and pressure for more than about two hours.

Venus’s moons

Venus has no moons.

Questions

Why is Venus so bright?

It is close to both the Sun and Earth, and its thick clouds reflect most of the sunlight that reaches them.

Is Venus the evening star or the morning star?

Both, at different times. It moves between the evening and morning sky roughly every nine to ten months.

Can I see Venus in daylight?

Sometimes, when it is far from the Sun and you know exactly where to look. Never scan the sky near the Sun with binoculars or a telescope.

Why does Venus have phases?

Its orbit is inside ours, so we see varying amounts of its sunlit half. Galileo’s observation of these phases helped show that planets orbit the Sun.

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Sources: SkyMate; star chart: Wikidata (CC0). Positions computed for your place and time with astronomy-engine. Data & Licences