The many phases of Venus

Picking up on a post I submitted earlier in the thread, I want to go to further detail on the motion and behaviour of Venus:

She spends 584 days to move from one superior conjunction to the next. Her fastest direct motion is 1 deg 16?. Venus? average apparent daily motion as seen from the Earth is 1 deg 12?, although we will probably count her as swift when her motion exceeds the daily motion of the Sun, which varies between 0 deg 57? and 1 deg 01?. Venus? swiftest retrograde motion is 0 deg 38?, but in relation to the Sun her motion is then 1 deg 36?. This should be compared with her direct motion, because when she is forward and at her fastest her daily motion will never vary with more than 16? in relation to the Sun.

Beginning with the superior conjunction, the state of cazimi, being in the Heart of the Sun, will last for two days (!!) Taking the superior conjunction of April 2. 1997 as example, Venus entered cazimi at 13.00 GMT April 1. and departed from cazimi at 14.00 GMT on April 4. During her superior conjunction, Venus? daily motion is at her maximum but she virtually maintains this pace for the next 4 months to come.

Coming from her superior conjunction it takes Venus no less than 31 days before she is 8 degrees separate the Sun and we can say that she is no longer combust. There are certain theoretical questions to be raised at this point, because although Venus may be visible from this point we know that she is far more brilliant than say dismal Saturn, who would require a greater elongation before he could be spied in the sky. It also seems possible that Venus is far more brilliant when she is 8 degrees distant from her inferior conjunction in comparison to 8 degrees distant from her superior conjunction ? but I notice that we are treating them as equal.

Coming from her superior conjunction Venus remains swifter than the Sun for 7 months. This is the time it takes for her to move from her superior conjunction to her maximum eastern elongation, namely 221 days. In my previous post, with the example form 1996, we noted that it took 34 days for her to move from maximum eastern elongation to her greatest brilliance. From the date of her greatest brilliance, 16 days passes before she enters her first station. In other words, 50 days passes from Venus maximum eastern elongation and until she goes retrograde. I will add that when Venus is at her greatest brilliance her disc is 40? of arc, in comparison to the 10? of arc during her superior conjunction and 64? of arc during her inferior conjunction.

21 days will pass from when Venus turns retrograde and until she makes her inferior conjunction. Venus? brilliance is greatest 37 days before the inferior conjunction.

Now as Venus overtakes the Earth, and passes between the Earth and the Sun, things happen fast. Remember how it took 31 days to depart from her superior combustion? Well, Venus enters combustion again only 4 days prior to her inferior conjunction. The state of cazimi will only last for 8 hours and after another 4 days she is already departing from combustion!!! 71 days passes from Venus maximum eastern elongation until she reaches her inferior conjunction. 21 days will pass from her inferior conjunction until she turns direct. 37 days will pass from the inferior conjunction until she reaches maximum brilliance. 71 days will pass from her inferior conjunction until she reaches maximum western elongation and from this point it will take a further 221 days before she again reaches her superior conjunction.

I realize I am all into dates and number in this post, but by doing this it will be much easier for us to look in the ephemeris and reckon out the exact Venusian phase that we are dealing with at a specific moment. I also think that the figures show that there is an obvious qualitative difference between Venus in her inferior phase as in comparison to her superior.

The Astronomical Exploration of Venus

There are facets of the astronomical exploration of the planet Venus that deserves a mentioning under this thread, and from an astrological perspective I am sure you will agree that this is quite interesting:

Venus 1
The first attempt to reach Venus was made by the Russians with the launching of the space probe Venus 1 on 12 February 1961. Mercury was stationary turning retrograde at 9PI10 on this day. Something might have gone wrong 12 days later when Mercury re-entered Aquarius. Certainly, 14 days after take-off communications with the probe were interrupted. Venus was 10Aries when the probe was launched and Mars, the dispositor of Venus, was 0CN14. This position proves significant, being the summer solstice, and as we will see this location of Mars actually reappears in later charts. There was a total solar eclipse at 26AQ25 on 15 February, three days after the space probe launching, but of equal calibre is the superior conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn at 25CP12 on 19 February. Jupiter conjuncts the lord of the eclipse.

Venus 1 passed the planet at a distance of 100 000km on 20 May 1961. Out of curiosity this is only 3 days after reached her maximum brilliance after her inferior conjunction with the Sun and her location is 19Aries, which is the exaltation degree of the Sun and the square root of the entire zodiac.

Mariner 1
The Americans first attempt to reach Venus was with Mariner 1, launched into space on 22 July 1962. This mission was a complete failure. NASA lost control of the space probe at take off and was inevitably shot down after 4 minutes and 53 seconds. Neptune was stationary D at 10SC43. The was also a lunar eclipse a few days in advance on 17 July at 24CP25, which is closely aligned the superior conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn of 19 February 1961 at 25CP12.

Mariner 2
Mariner 2 was successfully launched on 27 August 1962 with Mars 3Cancer (!!) Venus was 20Libra, which curiously enough is opposite her position when the Russian probe Venus 1 first passed her on 20 May 1961. Mariner 2 passed Venus at a height of 34 752km on 14 December 1962 and is reckoned at the first successful exploration of Venus. Pluto was stationary R on this day at 12VI09. Measurements of the magnetic field, ionosphere etc. were taken. The Mariner 2 was the first space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter. Venus, on this day, was located 15Scorpio, which is the degree of expanded consciousness, or rather the door though which all things must pass to enter into our realm of conscious awareness and existence. I have mentioned this degree in several other posts as being the borderline of the subdivision of Saturn and Uranus in Johndro?s Conception of Sign Rulership. This degree appears accentuated in the discovery chart of the outer planets and also in the charts of other significant scientific discoveries, like the discovery of Plutonium, and the nature of the planet that is closest associated to the heart of Scorpio tells us something about the nature of what is entering our conscious awareness. Venus was on this day conjunct Neptune at 14SC35. The atmosphere of Neptune is quite a hostile soup, isn?t it?

Venus 3
On 16 November 1965 the Americans launched Venus 3. Mars was on this day 2CP (!!!) Saturn was stationary D at 10PI29 only two days earlier and Venus herself was 11CP. This mission lead to the first crash landing with Venus on 1 March 1966, but the attempts to revive transmissions of measurements and data from Venus 3 proved unsuccessful. Mercury crossed the equator and was 28Pisces on this day, in the degree of Venus? exaltation, but unfortunately in his own detriment and fall.

Venus 5
The probe Venus 5 was launched on 5 January 1969 with Venus 1Pisces, Mars 4Scorpio and Saturn 19Aries (conjunct the position of Venus in the chart for the passing of Mariner 1!). Uranus was stationary R on 8 January 1969 at 4LI00. Landing sections of Venus 5 entered Venus? atmosphere on 16 June 1969 and transmitted data for 53 minutes until reaching a height of 25 km above the planet?s surface. The temperature at this height was 320C.

Venus 7
The probe was launched on 17 August 1970 and accomplished the first soft landing on the planet on 15 December 1970. Venus was 14Scorpio on this day. Chemical analysis of the atmosphere was performed during the probes? descent. The temperature at the surface was a sweltering 475C!

Venus 9
On 8 June 1975 the Americans launched the probe that was to become the first artificial satellite of Venus. Mars was conjunct Jupiter at 19Aries on the day of the launching, square Saturn at 19Cancer. When the probe entered orbit around Venus on 25 October 1975, Venus herself was 16VI and conjunct the exaltation degree of Mercury, Mars was 2Cancer (!!!) trine Uranus at 3 Scorpio and Jupiter was retrograde and once again 19Aries.

Gjiada wrote:But Venus is not a significator for thieves. Generally it's Mercury, no?

&

Deb wrote:I was being flippant you know, ... and I never said that Venus is a natural significator for a thief! The technique for building up a physical description can be used to describe any kind of person (I ?m sure I said something like ?if we want to describe, say, a thief ??). If Venus is the significator we are looking at then this technique is one of the factors that is taken into consideration, but of course it is only a contributor to the judgement.

Perhaps I took the example too seriously, a bit saturnine for this venerian thread . Yes, Mercury is related to thieves. So Venus is then used mainly to find the age if I understand well.

Gjiada wrote:In every case it seems to me he mentions the Moon cycle as you mentioned: he gives two variants, in the first book Sulla fisionomia dell'uomo the first one (I believe you mentioned something like that), in Della Celeste fisonomia, the most known. I remember you talked about this, so I translated both.

Do you mean this from p.2 of this thread?

Gjiada wrote:

I can understand the reasoning of attributing 'moist' to morning and spring. Ptolemy attributes 'moist' to the new moon to first quarter period. Here I have some other thoughts. As new moon can be considered a 'minimum' wouldn't it be more reasonable to attribute 'cold' to new moon to first quarter? Then 'moist' could be attributed to first quarter to full moon.

Moon is a little tricky: Della Porta thinks and writes like you and in CieloeTerra site they give both the possibilities. Anyway the important point is that after the New Moon, she is MOIST and at Full Moon, she is HOT, because Moon follows the outer planets epycycle.

Did he doubt between the possibilities or did he think they could be used in different situations?
It's also interesting that Della Porte mentions the three types of Moon

The physiognomy and planets article wrote:Poets called her trine, with three faces: Diana in the forests, Proserpina in the hell, and Luna in the sky.

This three types of the Moon seems to be a very old principle.

Andrew Bevan wrote:

Gjiada wrote:But Venus is not a significator for thieves. Generally it's Mercury, no?

It wouldn't be the first time Venus had stuck a finger in the honey pot. How about Venus and embezzelment? I also think Venus could be accused of negligence.

Sometimes I have seen Mercury Venus conjunctions in charts of talkative people. I can imagine that a negative side could be something like talking money out of ones pocket like telemarketers, instead of plain robbery which would be more related to Mars. Ptolemy lists some combinations Tetr.III13

Talking about Mercury, I saw him last night one hour after sunset. These days are the best time to find him.

Gjiada wrote:See here http://www.billyandcharlie.com/planets/venus.html please ......

In the poem Venus presents herself as moist and cold. Probably because of her exaltation in Pisces but it is quite surprising because Ptolemy calls her moist and warm.

Andrew Bevan wrote:Beginning with the superior conjunction, the state of cazimi, being in the Heart of the Sun, will last for two days (!!) Taking the superior conjunction of April 2. 1997 as example, Venus entered cazimi at 13.00 GMT April 1. and departed from cazimi at 14.00 GMT on April 4.

Sometimes Venus is litteraly behind the Sun's disc. This occurs more often than the transits before the Sun's disc. Here's an animation and some data. http://kepler.nasa.gov/ed/ss/venusoccultation.html
Venus and especially Mars are the planets that stay the longest near the Sun. The last time I saw Mars is about a year ago. As Venus and Mars are in conjunction the next few months! and exact conjunct this week, it's a good opportunity to search for Mars below Venus (with a pair of binoculars).

Well, Venus enters combustion again only 4 days prior to her inferior conjunction. The state of cazimi will only last for 8 hours and after another 4 days she is already departing from combustion!!!

The only times I saw Venus when theoretically too clos to the Sun was during the August 1999 solar eclipse and during Venus' transit over the Sun in June 2004. Amazing experiences. In 2012 Venus again will transit the Sun's disc, a once or at most twice in a lifetime event.

The Astronomical Exploration of Venus

I wonder what the charts would have looked like from a Venus-centric point of view .
Here's some info on the Russian Venera missions http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/venera.html

Note that many launch dates are chosen to get the ideal circumstances to let the gravity of the planets do the work (instead of fuel) and 'pull and sweep' the mission probes through the solar system.

Eddy wrote: Do you mean this from p.2 of this thread?

I can understand the reasoning of attributing 'moist' to morning and spring. Ptolemy attributes 'moist' to the new moon to first quarter period. Here I have some other thoughts. As new moon can be considered a 'minimum' wouldn't it be more reasonable to attribute 'cold' to new moon to first quarter? Then 'moist' could be attributed to first quarter to full moon.

Yes, I translated both version because of you.

Did he doubt between the possibilities or did he think they could be used in different situations?

I believe they are alternative versions, they come from two different books but I collected together because the second one is more detailed (but very long to translate). The first version - from the NM to the first quadrant moist, from the first quadrant to the FM hot, comes from Porphirius and was followed by almost all the astrologers. It follows the same scheme of seasons. Aristotle says something about the fact the Moon is a little Sun.

But on the other hand Galen says that when the Moon is increasing in light is like the beginning of the winter, and when she is decreasing at the beginning of the summer.

Two different versions, I'm sorry

It's also interesting that Della Porte mentions the three types of Moon

The physiognomy and planets article wrote:Poets called her trine, with three faces: Diana in the forests, Proserpina in the hell, and Luna in the sky.

This three types of the Moon seems to be a very old principle.

Yes, It's Ecate, who was called Trivia in Roma, the Threefold.

In the poem Venus presents herself as moist and cold. Probably because of her exaltation in Pisces but it is quite surprising because Ptolemy calls her moist and warm.

Bezza says that Greek astrologers prefer hot and moist while Arab ones cold and moist. In every case she is temperate in warmth but moist.

Margherita

Thanks for all the useful detail on the motion Andrew.

Eddy I think I have left you confused regarding the age thing. The technique is used in horary as one of a number of techniques to identify the age of an unknown person. It would only be applied to Venus if Venus was acting as the main significator for the unknown person. You can safely forget all about it if you don?t use horary yourself.

I managed to see Venus myself this morning. I was about to give up looking when I noticed it rise over the horizon at about 5 am. It was, as you say, very bright, and it was the last 'star' to remain visible after the Sun rose. I could still just about make it out at 6 am, but only because I knew where to look. I don't think I would have found it at all without the aid of Stellarium - I've been getting up far too early - looking from about 3:00 am. Then this morning I had the sense to check Stellarium which predicted it would be visible over my horizon at 5:01 am (spot on), and I could judge its approximate location from its distance from the Moon.

I have to correct myself; I assumed that Venus was more brilliant when departing from inferior combustion rather than her superior combustion due to her her apparent size being larger when she is inferior and thus closer to the Earth than when she is in her 'superior ' phase and on the opposite side of the Sun. I was wrong.

When Venus departs from her superior combustion and is 8 degrees distant of the Sun her brilliance is -3.9 mag. At this time her apparent diameter is merely 9.6", but on the other hand 99,5% of her disc surface is illuminated.

When Venus departs from her inferior combustion her apparent diameter is 56" of arc, but ONLY 0,96% (less than 1%!!) is illuminated. Her magnitude is thus -3.5 mag. Venus actually requires 11 degrees of elongation to the Sun during her inferior phase to reach a magnitude of -3.9 mag. At this time 1.8% of her apparent 56" diameter is illuminated.

That gives us something to ponder on. Maybe the Sun's burn is more severe during the inferior phase. As Gjiada pointed our, the Sun will more often occlude the inferiors during their superior conjunctions than these same planets transit the solar disc. Should these phenomena be interpreted differently? The inferior transit of the Solar disc would in that context seem more like an extra-ordinary summoning for the swift.

As I understand it (or from what I've read), Venus is at its brightest approx 36 days before and after the inferior conjunction with the Sun. As a 'rough and ready' approach there is about 7 months between the superior conjunction and the max. elong. east, then about 5 months between this and the max. elong. west., and then about 7 months more to the next superior conjunction.

The (approximate) 5 months between max elongation east and west can be broken down into approx 36 day periods:

Max elongation east > 36 days > brightest evening appearance > 36 days > inferior conjunction > 36 days > brightest morning appearance > Max elongation west.

But that would mean that Venus is going to be at its brightest at the end of this month/start of May - is that right? It hardly seems possible that it can reach its greatest morning brilliance so soon.

But that would mean that Venus is going to be at its brightest at the end of this month/start of May - is that right? It hardly seems possible that it can reach its greatest morning brilliance so soon.

If you ask me, some girls can be quite brilliant - and they don't necessarily have to spend too much time in the make-up room either!

Well we shall wait and see then. In my younger days I spent several years in a job where I had to get up and travel before sunrise. I remember seeing Venus so bright that it looked like a gaping hole, and it filled the pre-dawn sky with its pinkish light. I remember one time waking the family up so that they could see it too, because it was so stunning. I haven't seen Venus looking that brilliant since, but I assume that's because I don't get up so early these days. There must have been some other factor at work though, because I can't imagine that Venus could become that brilliant in the few days we have left between now and the end of the month.

Hi Margherita. Translating these texts must be a wonderful work. Hard work perhaps but I can imagine that being able to read ancient manuscripts in the original language also gives the feeling of the spirit of that time. If there's any Dutch text I could translate for you, please ask .

I prefer Galen's explanation, however immediately a little voice in me asks what we should do when at the Earth's equator where the day always is 12 hours long ?

Gjiada wrote:[Bezza says that Greek astrologers prefer hot and moist while Arab ones cold and moist. In every case she is temperate in warmth but moist.

I remember having read yesterday in Tetrabiblos I 4 that Venus is especially moist.

Ptolemy wrote: Venus has the same powers and tempered nature as Jupiter, but acts in the opposite way; for she warms moderately because of her nearness to the sun, but chiefly humidifies, like the moon, because of the amount of her own light and because she appropriates the exhalations from the moist atmosphere surrounding the earth.

Deb wrote:Eddy I think I have left you confused regarding the age thing. The technique is used in horary as one of a number of techniques to identify the age of an unknown person. It would only be applied to Venus if Venus was acting as the main significator for the unknown person. You can safely forget all about it if you don?t use horary yourself.

No problem Deb. This way I slowly get info about horary. Talking about horary. In a 2nd hand shop I saw a book of Simmonite, a reprint though (but at least a several decades one) with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto interpretations added. I wonder if it is a good book just to know what horary is about. I'm not sure if I once might get into horary so buying Lilly seems too much of an investment to me.

I managed to see Venus myself this morning. I was about to give up looking when I noticed it rise over the horizon at about 5 am. It was, as you say, very bright, and it was the last 'star' to remain visible after the Sun rose.

Congratulations . And you saw her actually till after sunrise. On a very few occasions I saw Venus at daytime. You have to know exactly where to look, but when you see her it is still surprisiong how bright she still is.

I found a few online calculating programs for the rising times for the planets.
http://destiny.xfiles.to/app/calendar/S ... locale/en/
http://keisan.casio.com/has10/SpecExec. ... rset=utf-8

As I understand it (or from what I've read), Venus is at its brightest approx 36 days before and after the inferior conjunction with the Sun.

Yes that is correct. My annual star guide mentions the most brightness some weeks later/earlier. And indeed "...Venus is going to be at its brightest at the end of this month/start of May...".

Thanks Andrew for mentioning the exact number of days. That's interesting data you have (the "%'s" of lillumination). Do you have a computer program for that or is this information available on a(n astronomical) website?

37 is close to 1/16th of the full 584 cycle . That's an easy reminder with the other dates in mind roughly at 1/8th, 1/4th and 1/2 mentioned in my last post on page 3 of the thread.

It hardly seems possible that it can reach its greatest morning brilliance so soon.

It probably is a combination of the percentage of the illumination of the disc and the size of the planet.

Andrew Bevan wrote:As Gjiada pointed our, the Sun will more often occlude the inferiors during their superior conjunctions than these same planets transit the solar disc. Should these phenomena be interpreted differently?

The reason because of the "oftenness" is due to the orbit. Venus' orbit is inclined about 3.39?. Close to Earth this can appear up to 8? while on the other side of the Sun, say 2?. Therefore the chance of an occultation by the Sun is bigger. Perhaps they therefore can be interpretated differently. On the other side, none of these phenomena is as apparent as lunar and solar eclipses. Would this make them both (notwithstanding the few times the Venus transit occur) having less astrological significance?

I had to get up and travel before sunrise. I remember seeing Venus so bright that it looked like a gaping hole, and it filled the pre-dawn sky with its pinkish light. (...)I haven't seen Venus looking that brilliant since, but I assume that's because I don't get up so early these days.

I think that could be because in the morning the sky usually is clearer and less polluted than at the evening. If you see Venus after sunset the sky is filled with more car gasses and (even on less warm days) the sky has been heated by the Sun and can be more hazy. Also there is the possibility that in the evening more people have the lights on at home so light pollution should also play a role.

I guess this Venus sighting was in the autumn, morning visibilities of planets are the best in autumn (because the Sun is in the autumn signs and those planets still in the higher summer signs). Venus would then be very high in the sky.

Deb wrote:I haven't seen Venus looking that brilliant since, but I assume that's because I don't get up so early these days. There must have been some other factor at work though, because I can't imagine that Venus could become that brilliant in the few days we have left between now and the end of the month.

Oriental planets are best observed during the Autumn, while occidentals are best observed during the spring. This has to do with the inclination of the ecliptic. Venus, as an oriental planet during spring has a lower declination than the Sun, lies lower in the sky in the northern hemisphere and is therefore less brilliant in these parts of the world. Due to the declination factor there is less space in time between the rising of Venus and the rising of the Sun in spite of the elongation.

I notice that Venus currently has 3 1/2 degree northern latitude, which helps a bit, but she still is 9 1/2 degrees lower than the Sun in the sky. Any pinkish colour could be due to aberration. It can also be due to humidity in the atmosphere.

Thanks Andrew and Eddy. Working out where I was living at that time, it must have been around the time of the inferior conjunction in June 1988. According to the theory, Venus should be at its brightest about 36 days later, around 19th July, but looking at Stellarium it is actually brighter about two weeks later than this, and there seems to be a much better contrast for its light after it has distanced itself a little further from the Sun around the end of August, when it is still almost at its brightest. Late Summer (end of August) fits in with what I remember ? I think it would have been around the end of August. This is very similar to what we?ll have for the inferior conjunction in 2012, when we get the transit passage, so mark it in your diary as one to watch for