Aspects of Venus


In astrology, an aspect is an angle a planet makes to another planet or point of astrological interest. As the second-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon, often prominent during the morning or evening, Venus has aspects that are readily apparent to the casual eye. They were of historical importance in the development of geocentric and ultimately heliocentric models of the Solar System.

Aspects of the planet Venus

The table contains special positions of Venus until 2021. In general, Venus is an "evening star" when it has an eastern elongation from the Sun, and is a "morning star" when it has a western elongation.
Greatest eastern elongationGreatest brilliancyStationary, then retrogradeInferior conjunctionStationary, then progradeGreatest brilliancyGreatest western elongationSuperior conjunction
March 29, 2004 - 46°May 3, 2004May 18, 2004June 8, 2004June 29, 2004July 13, 2004August 17, 2004 - 45.8°March 31, 2005
November 3, 2005 - 47.1°December 12, 2005December 23, 2005January 13, 2006February 3, 2006February 14, 2006March 25, 2006 - 46.5°October 27, 2006
June 9, 2007 - 45.4°July 14, 2007July 25, 2007August 18, 2007September 7, 2007September 23, 2007October 28, 2007 - 46.5°June 9, 2008
January 14, 2009 - 47.1°February 20, 2009March 5, 2009March 27, 2009April 15, 2009April 29, 2009June 5, 2009 - 45.9°January 11, 2010
August 20, 2010 - 46°September 27, 2010October 7, 2010October 29, 2010November 16, 2010December 2, 2010January 8, 2011 - 47°August 16, 2011
March 27, 2012 - 46°April 30, 2012May 15, 2012June 6, 2012June 27, 2012July 10, 2012August 15, 2012 - 45.8°March 28, 2013
November 1, 2013 - 47.1°December 10, 2013December 20, 2013January 11, 2014January 31, 2014February 11, 2014March 22, 2014 - 46.6°October 25, 2014
June 6, 2015 - 45.4°July 12, 2015July 23, 2015August 15, 2015September 5, 2015September 20, 2015October 26, 2015 - 46.4°June 6, 2016
January 12, 2017 - 47.1°February 18, 2017March 2, 2017March 25, 2017April 12, 2017April 26, 2017June 3, 2017 - 45.9°January 9, 2018
August 17, 2018 - 45.9°September 25, 2018October 5, 2018October 26, 2018November 24, 2018November 30, 2018January 6, 2019 - 47°August 14, 2019
March 24, 2020 - 46.1°April 28, 2020May 13, 2020June 3, 2020June 24, 2020July 8, 2020August 13, 2020 - 45.8°March 26, 2021

Note: Greatest brilliancy is often confused with "maximum brightness". Although they are related, they are not quite the same thing. The "greatest brilliancy" is really a geometric maximum: it occurs when the apparent area of the sunlit part of Venus is greatest. Only if the luminance of Venus' apparent surface would be constant would the "greatest brilliancy" of Venus coincide with its maximum brightness. However, the reflection of sunlight on Venus more closely follows Lambert's law, which means that the maximum brightness occurs at a somewhat larger phase of Venus than its greatest brilliancy.