SkyEye

What is an Apparition?

An apparition of a planet is the period during which it is visible, beginning and ending with solar conjunction. In the cases of the inferior planets Mercury and Venus, it is the time between inferior and superior conjunction (morning apparition) and the time between superior and inferior conjunction (evening apparition). Because inferior planets are always near the Sun, they only appear in the east before sunrise and the west after sunset.

Below are a series of diagrams showing the morning and evening apparitions of Mercury and Venus as observed from latitude 50° north. The planet is shown on the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st and 26th days of each month with the current year's positions shown in bright white. The path may extend from the previous year or into the next.

Mercury

Mercury undergoes several morning and evening apparitions every year. Morning apparitions occur between inferior conjunction (when the planet is at its dimmest) and superior conjunction (when the planet is at its brightest) whereas evening apparitions always start bright and end with the planet around sixth magnitude. Mercury appears both at dawn and at dusk four times in 2023.

Mercury manages a little over 10° in altitude during its first morning appearance during January–March (blue track) which is superior to its next incarnation (pink track) where it gets only 7° above the horizon in May and June. The third apparition (green track) is the best one at this latitude. Mercury reaches an altitude of 15.6° in the east on 23 September when it shines brightly at magnitude −0.5. The final appearance of Mercury (orange track) occurs at the very end of the year, with the bright planet just appearing above the southeastern horizon before 2023 concludes.

The final evening apparition of 2022 segues into the first evening apparition of 2023 (blue track) but with inferior conjunction looming, Mercury quickly vanishes in the southwest. The second appearance between mid-March and the end of April is the best evening appearance of the tiny planet (pink track), with Mercury reaching an altitude at sunset of over 17°. The third evening appearance (green track) occurs in the months of July and August and is rather worse, with Mercury getting only half as high. The final apparition (October–December, orange track) is just a little better.

Venus

Venus begins the year as the evening star, moving into the morning sky in late August.

The morning star appears in the east before sunrise in mid- to late August. This is a good morning apparition, with the planet reaching an altitude of 37.9° in mid-October before declining again. Venus is at its brightest in mid-September (magnitude −4.5) but is still a dazzling −4.1 when it finishes the year 19° above the southeastern horizon.

Venus begins the year low in the southwest but steadily climbs in altitude, reaching an altitude of 34.6° and a brightness of magnitude −4.1 by the end of April. The evening star then plummets toward the western horizon, brightening to −4.5 in July before fading slightly as it approaches inferior conjunction in August.

Sources

The dates, times and circumstances of all planetary and lunar phenomena were calculated from the JPL DE406 solar system ephemeris using the same rigorous methods that are employed in the compilation of publications such as The Astronomical Almanac.