Residents of Qatar to be able to observe Venus at its closest point to the sun on 15 May 2026

Venus Qatar 2026

According to the Qatar Calendar House, Venus is registered as the brightest planet in our solar system and will reach its closest point to the sun (perihelion) on Friday 15 May 2026.

Venus will be about 107 million kilometres from the sun, compared with just shy of 109 million at its farthest point on 22 January 2026.

Dr. Bashir Marzouk, an astronomer at the Qatar Calendar House, stated that residents of Qatar  will be able to see Venus at the time of its astronomical perpendicular position relative with the closest point occurred from sun, after such in western opposite Qatari horizon westwardly direction from sunset and before the planet sets in Qatar's sky at 8:36 pm local Doha time.

Venus is at perihelion too, the point in an orbit where a body is closest to the sun once every 225 days or so. The previous perihelion was on Thursday, 2 October 2025, and then the following perihelion will be on Friday, 25 December 2026.

Like the other planets in the solar system, Venus travels about the sun along an ellipse with two foci (the sun is at one of them) so that it has a furthest extent from the sun, called aphelion and a closest extent, called perihelion.

Venus is the second closest planet to the sun, an average of 108 million kilometres away. It is the brightest planet in our solar system and the third brightest natural object after Sun & Moon.

Both Venus and Uranus rotate about their axes backwards to all the other planets in our solar system; or Venus and Uranus turn from east to west, whilst other worlds spin from west to east.

Breaking news qatar: Skywatchers in Qatar can witness a rare celestial event on 15 May 2026 as Venus reaches its closest point to the sun.