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Inner planets

How Venus turns from evening to morning star

Venus shines after sunset for months, then before sunrise. See how its inner orbit swings it past the Sun and backwards against the stars.

01 · East, then west

Venus swings from one side of the Sun to the other.

Venus also orbits inside Earth’s orbit, so it never strays far from the Sun in our sky. East of the Sun it sets after sunset, an evening star; west of the Sun it rises before sunrise, a morning star. It changes sides at inferior conjunction, moving backwards against the stars as it does.

Venus and Earth around the Sun, and Venus’s angle from the Sun Left: Venus on its inner orbit and Earth on its outer orbit around the Sun, seen from the north. A line from Earth through Venus shows where Venus appears. Right: its angle east or west of the Sun over one 584-day cycle, with the backward stretch shaded. 58 days before inferior conjunction: Venus is 46° east of the Sun, in the evening sky, moving forward against the stars. SEEN FROM THE NORTH · SIZES NOT TO SCALE Earth · Venus · Sun ANGLE FROM THE SUN SunEast: evening skyWest: morning sky backwards 584 days, centred on inferior conjunction
58 days before inferior conjunctionVenus is 46° east of the Sun, in the evening sky, moving forward against the stars.
Circular orbits at average speeds, seen from the north. Venus’s real orbit is nearly circular, so this model’s 42-day backward stretch matches the real 41 to 43 days closely.

The chart on the right is Venus’s angle from the Sun. Above the line it is an evening object, below it a morning one; the backward stretch sits where the curve crosses over.

02 · Venus in 2026

Evening star to morning star, October 2026.

Venus spends most of 2026 in the evening sky, passes the Sun on 24 October, and becomes a morning object for the following months.

Venus’s angle from the Sun, June 2026 to February 2027 Venus is east of the Sun, in the evening sky, through mid-2026, reaching about 46 degrees in mid-August. It swings back past the Sun at inferior conjunction on 24 October 2026, moving backwards against the stars from 3 October to 14 November, and is then west of the Sun, in the morning sky, reaching about 47 degrees in early January 2027. EVENING SKY · EAST OF THE SUN MORNING SKY · WEST OF THE SUN 24 Oct Backwards 3 Oct to 14 Nov JunJulAugSeptOctNovDecJanFeb
Angle east or west of the Sun along the ecliptic, from the site’s ephemeris every five days. Dates in IST.

Never far from the Sun

Venus orbits the Sun at about 0.72 times Earth’s distance, once every 225 days. Like Mercury, it travels inside Earth’s orbit, so from Earth it always appears on one side of the Sun or the other, never opposite it. Its greatest angle from the Sun is about 46°, reached once on each side in every cycle.

That angle decides when Venus can be seen. East of the Sun, Venus follows the Sun across the sky and stays up after sunset: it is an evening star. West of the Sun, it rises before the Sun: a morning star. It is the same planet on both sides.

Changing sides

Venus overtakes Earth on the inside about every 584 days, passing between Earth and the Sun at inferior conjunction. Before that pass it is east of the Sun, in the evening sky; afterwards it is west, in the morning sky. For a few days around the pass it is too close to the Sun to see.

As it swings across, Venus also moves backwards against the stars, westward along the ecliptic, for about six weeks: between 2026 and 2036, from 41 to 43 days each time. The backward stretch, its retrograde motion, is centred on inferior conjunction, as it is for Mercury.

Venus in 2026

Venus is an evening object for most of 2026, reaching about 46° east of the Sun in mid-August. Then, measured in the sidereal zodiac with dates in IST:

Event Date
Turns back 3 October 2026
Inferior conjunction 24 October 2026
Turns forward 14 November 2026

By early January 2027 it is about 47° west of the Sun, high in the morning sky before dawn.

An eight-year rhythm

Five of Venus’s 584-day cycles take almost exactly eight years, so the pattern of evening and morning appearances repeats on nearly the same calendar dates eight years later. The next inferior conjunction after 24 October 2026 comes on 1 June 2028, and the one on 21 October 2034 falls within three days of the 2026 date.

In a Kundli

A birth chart marks Venus with an R when it is moving backwards at the birth moment, which happens for about six weeks in every nineteen months. The retrograde planets guide explains the marking.

See Venus’s next turning points on the planetary events page, or explore another topic in Learn.