Close approach of Venus and Jupiter

by: Eben van Zyl

On 23 February when Venus and Jupiter were closest together on line of sight, their separate apparent visual magnitudes were -4 and -2 respectively. What was their joint apparent magnitude at that time?

Assume their joint magnitude was x .

Then

\

\

\

\ .

The joint visual magnitude of Venus and Jupiter, together, was -4,16.
This was not much brighter than Venus alone. How much brighter?

It was times brighter.

Let this = x ,

\

\

\ .

The apparition was thus 1,16 times brighter than Venus, or 16% brighter.