Where is Venus tonight?

Venus in 3D

Venus lit by the Sun at this moment and seen from Earth’s direction, so its phase matches what a telescope shows. Drag to turn it. The time slider moves the light and the rotation.

Where to find Venus among the stars

Two finder charts for today: a wide field to find the right part of the sky and a closer field with fainter stars. North is up and east on the left, as the sky looks to the naked eye. The dotted line marks its path over the coming weeks, one dot per week.

Stars: HYG Database. Constellation figures: Stellarium. Deep-sky objects: OpenNGC (Messier objects marked M).

Visibility over the next 12 months

Angle between Venus and the Sun on the 15th of each month. The further from the Sun, the darker the sky around it. Colour shows whether it is in the evening or the morning sky.

Ephemeris for the next 15 days

Position at 0:00 UTC each day as seen from the centre of the Earth (apparent coordinates of date), calculated with Astronomy Engine.

Distance from Earth

Distance from Earth over the past and the coming year. The closest approach in this period: October 25, 2026, 40.8 million km.

Brightness

Visual magnitude over the same two years. Higher on the chart is brighter.

Coming up

• Nov 7, 2026Moon near Venus
• Nov 9, 2026Conjunction of Venus and Spica
• Jan 3, 2027Venus at greatest elongation (morning sky)
• Mar 4, 2027Moon near Venus
• Apr 3, 2027Moon near Venus
• May 7, 2027Conjunction of Venus and Saturn
• Oct 11, 2027Conjunction of Mercury and Venus
• Nov 24, 2027Conjunction of Venus and Mars

Facts

Moon count: NASA, page updated September 28, 2026

Source: NASA planetary fact sheet (Oct 12, 2026). Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. Data sources

Gravity compared: Venus and Earth

Drop, jump and throw side by side: Venus on one side, Earth or any other world on the other. Pick a world to compare, or open the full tool. Open the gravity tool

Latest NASA images of Venus

The newest images about it in NASA’s Photojournal, updated daily. Open one for NASA’s full caption and the original file.

NASA news about Venus

• May 14, 2025NASA’s Magellan Mission Reveals Possible Tectonic Activity on Venus
• Feb 27, 2025NASA Installs Heat Shield on First Private Spacecraft Bound for Venus
• Feb 24, 2025Venus Blows Off Some Steam
• Dec 9, 2024Leader of NASA’s VERITAS Mission Honored With AGU’s Whipple Award

Headlines from NASA’s news feeds (in English), updated daily. Last checked October 13, 2026.

Discoveries and exploration

Key moments in the study of Venus, each linked to its source.

1. December 14, 1962NASA's Mariner 2 flies past Venus, the first spacecraft to visit a planet beyond Earth. Source
2. 1967The Soviet Venera 4, launched June 12, 1967, becomes the first successful atmospheric probe of Venus. Source
3. 1970The Soviet Venera 7, launched Aug. 17, 1970, becomes the first successful Venus lander. Source
4. October 22, 1975The Venera 9 lander touches down and returns one of the first photos from another planet's surface. Source · Recent NASA photos
5. December 4, 1978NASA's Pioneer Venus Orbiter enters orbit around Venus. Source
6. August 10, 1990Magellan enters Venus orbit; its radar went on to image the entire surface. Source · Recent NASA photos
7. April 11, 2006ESA's Venus Express arrives, becoming the first European spacecraft to orbit Venus. Source
8. 2011Scientists using Venus Express data report a layer of ozone in Venus's upper atmosphere. Source
9. December 7, 2015Japan's Akatsuki enters Venus orbit after missing its first attempt in 2010. Source
10. February 9, 2022NASA publishes Parker Solar Probe's first visible-light images of Venus's surface taken from space. Source · Recent NASA photos

Checked against the linked NASA, ESA and NOAA pages on October 10, 2026.

How to use this page

Choose your place and a night at the top: tonight by default, or one of the dates under it. The tiles show when Venus rises, is highest and sets, and the numbers that matter for that night. Below them you find where it is right now, the sky in 3D with Venus marked, finder charts, the year ahead and the facts.

What the numbers mean

Rises and sets

When the top edge of the disc meets a flat horizon, with the bending of light by the air included, as in almanacs. A time on another day carries its date.

Highest

When it crosses the meridian, due south or due north, and its height above the horizon then.

Direction and height

The compass point and azimuth to face, counted from north through east, and the angle above the horizon. A fist at arm’s length covers about 10°.

Distance and apparent size

How far away it is from Earth’s centre at that moment and how wide it looks in the sky, in arcminutes (′) or arcseconds (″).

Magnitude

Brightness: the smaller the number, the brighter. About 6 is the faintest the eye sees under a dark sky.

How accurate it is

Positions and times come from Astronomy Engine. In our tests positions agree with NASA JPL’s Horizons to within one arcminute, and rise and set times of the Sun and the Moon to within two minutes. Times assume a flat horizon at your place, so hills and buildings change when you actually see it rise or set. Methodology

Frequently asked questions