Astronomy Essentials

Venus before sunrise: Greatest distance May 31-June 1, 2025

Morning twilight chart with Venus on May 31, 2024.
On the morning of May 31, 2025, (0:02 UTC on June 1), Venus will reach greatest elongation – or distance – from the sun. Image via Stellarium.org. Used with permission.

Venus will be farthest from the sunrise at 4 UTC on June 1, 2025.

When to watch: Venus raced between the Earth and sun in March 2025, and then it emerged quickly in the east before sunrise. It’ll remain visible in the morning sky until around October 2025. Greatest elongation – when Venus will be farthest from the sunrise – will be June 1, 2025, (4 UTC on June 1).
Where to look: Look in the sunrise direction while the sky is still dark or just getting light. Venus is super bright and high above the sunrise point! It’s the glorious “morning star.”
Greatest elongation is at 4 UTC on June 1, 2025. Venus’s distance from sun on the sky’s dome is 46 degrees.
Greatest elongation magnitude: Venus shines with dazzling brightness at magnitude -4.4.
Through a telescope: Venus appears 49% illuminated, in a 3rd quarter phase, 23.92″ arcseconds across.
Note: As the sun’s 2nd planet, Venus is bound by an invisible tether to the sun in our sky. It’s always east before sunrise, or west after sunset (never overhead at midnight). Venus is the brightest planet visible from Earth and shines brilliantly throughout every morning or evening apparition. Greatest elongation happens when Venus is farthest from the sun on the sky’s dome. At the June 2025 greatest elongation, Venus will appear higher in the sky from the Southern Hemisphere than from the Northern Hemisphere due to the steep angle of the ecliptic (path of the sun, moon and planets) on spring mornings.

Venus among the stars

Bright white dot for Venus in the morning on June 1, 2025, in Pisces.
Venus before sunrise. Venus will be at greatest elongation – farthest from the sunrise – on June 1, 2025. Look for Venus in the sunrise direction before dawn breaks as the sky is lightening. If you have a dark sky look for the constellation Pisces the Fishes. Image via Stellarium.

For precise sun and Venus rising times at your location:

Old Farmer’s Almanac (U.S. and Canada)

timeanddate.com (worldwide).

Stellarium (free online planetarium program)

Venus before sunrise in the Northern Hemisphere

Diagram: Path of Venus over horizon, a pointy arc, with planet's phases with their dates shown along it.
Venus’s greatest morning elongation in 2025 from the Northern Hemisphere as viewed through a powerful telescope. The planet images are at the 1st, 11th, and 21st of each month. Dots show the actual positions of Venus every day. Chart via Guy Ottewell’s 2025 Astronomical Calendar. Used with permission.

Venus before sunrise in the Southern Hemisphere

Diagram: Path of Venus over horizon, a pointy arc, with planet's phases with their dates shown along it.
Venus’s greatest morning elongation in 2025 from the Southern Hemisphere as viewed through a powerful telescope. The planet images are at the 1st, 11th, and 21st of each month. Dots show the actual positions of Venus every day. Chart via Guy Ottewell’s 2025 Astronomical Calendar. Used with permission.

A comparison of elongations

Not all of Venus’ greatest elongations are created equal. That’s because the farthest from the sun that Venus can ever appear on the sky’s dome is about 47.3 degrees. On the other hand, the least distance is around 45.4 degrees.

Elongations are also higher or lower depending on the time of year they occur and your location on Earth.

Diagram: 3asymmetrical humps, 2 gray and 1 blue, with arced lines in them and dates.
A comparison chart of Venus elongations in 2025. Gray areas represent evening apparitions (eastward elongation). Blue areas represent morning apparitions (westward elongation). The top figures are the maximum elongations, reached at the top dates shown beneath. Curves show the altitude of the planet above the horizon at sunrise or sunset, for latitude 40 degrees north (thick line) and 35 degrees south (thin). Maxima are reached at the parenthesized dates below (40 degrees north bold). Chart via Guy Ottewell’s 2025 Astronomical Calendar. Used with permission.

When are the best elongations?

As hinted at above, morning elongations of Venus (or Mercury) are best around the autumn equinox (around September for the Northern Hemisphere, around March for the Southern Hemisphere). These elongations, called western elongations because Venus is west of the sun, happen when the ecliptic – path of the sun, moon and planets – makes a steep angle to the morning horizon. A steep ecliptic angle keeps the planets more directly above the sunrise or sunset.

Springtime elongations that occur in the morning (around March for the Northern Hemisphere, around September for the Southern Hemisphere) are less glorious because of the shallow angle of the ecliptic. When the ecliptic makes a shallow angle with respect to the horizon, that angle keeps the planets closer to the bright sun’s rays.

Chart showing the high ecliptic on autumn mornings and low ecliptic on spring mornings.
This image shows the path of the ecliptic in the morning sky around the fall and spring equinoxes.

How far can Venus be from the sun?

The farthest from the sun that Venus can ever appear on the sky’s dome is about 47.3 degrees. On the other hand, the least distance is around 45.4 degrees.

Venus events, 2025

January 10, 2025: Greatest elongation (evening)
March 22, 2025: Inferior conjunction (races between Earth and sun)
June 1, 2025: Greatest elongation (morning)
January 6, 2026: Superior conjunction (passes behind sun from Earth)

Bottom line: Look for Venus before sunrise. It’ll reach greatest elongation – its greatest distance from the sunrise – on June 1, 2025, (4 UTC on June 1). It’s blazingly bright! You can’t miss it!

Posted 
May 31, 2025
 in 
Astronomy Essentials

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