[AZ-Observing] Re: Capella at noon

See now, Sam has some actual data to back up his claims.
IMHO, This is an Olde Wife's Tale (old Astronomy Student tale?) that 
resurfaces from time to time.
Of course, some tellers will add, "Wahllll, My Granpappy tol' me that, 
and WHY would he LIE to ME??"  Best not to argue with those folks, they 
carry guns.  :>((
You will note that NONE of the tellers ever actually tried it.  In mine 
shafts or smokestacks.  One teller swore he could see Polaris -- no 
smokestacks I know of lean over at 30 to 40 degrees northward in these 
parts...
I read a story about an old Astronomy Prof who "proved" the story 
through a practical experiment in his classes, by having the student lie 
down on his back with a jacket over his face, looking up the sleeve.  
While waiting for his "night vision" to develop, a pail of cold water 
was poured down the sleeve, ending the experiment conclusively.  
(Derivation of the equations is left as an exercise for the class...)
No one but astronauts have seen the stars in the daytime.  You gotta be 
up about 60 miles or more, unless you're using the stuff that Steve Coe 
carries in his special Observing Box...... :>))
Gene Lucas
(17250)
sam@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>>I have read if you are at the
>>bottom of a long smoke stack, like the one at Humboldt, you can see
>>stars naked eye.
>>    
>>
>
>Philip Plait discusses this in his book, "Bad Astronomy". To summarize, he 
>deduces that there are only a half dozen objects of sufficient magnitude to 
>be discerned from the background sky during the daytime. However, only two 
>of those objects are stars: Sirius and Canopus. The odds of having one of 
>those objects pass directly over the opening of a smoke stack become more 
>remote. And this difficulty increases in an inverse proportion to the 
>diameter of the smoke stack because of amount of sky covered through a given 
>opening.
>
>He goes on to describe an experiment by J. Allen Hynek published in Sky & 
>Telescope (no. 10 [1951]: 61) in which Hynek and several of his students in 
>his astronomy class attempted to see Vega pass through an abandoned smoke 
>stack near Ohio University. None of them were able to discern Vega naked 
>eye. Some even had binoculars and were still not able to see Vega in 
>daylight.
>
>So it would appear that, while not impossible, it is high unlikely that 
>anyone would be able to see a star (other than the Sun) during the day time 
>with the naked eye.
>
>Sam Rua
>Tucson 
>
>  
>


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