[AZ-Observing] Re: Daylight sighting of Venus

  • From: "Gene A. Lucas" <geneluca@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:19:20 -0700

Many years ago (early 1960s) when I was younger and was not near-sighted 
as now, I watched Venus in the early morning, and was able to follow it 
up to about 11 am in the clear summer sky, without any other horizon 
references such as trees, etc.  I was out in a boat on Seneca Lake in 
western NY, facing eastward. We were in the middle of the lake, which is 
over a mile wide.  We got out on the lake before sunrise, and Venus was 
very prominent and bright.
Unfortunately, I did not take notice of what phase Venus was at, but it 
was quite some distance away from the Sun, like it is just now (in the 
evening sky). (Of course, the shape of the disk was NOT visible to my 
unaided eyes, and I did not have any binoculars along....)
I would agree completely with all of Keith's remarks.  The main 
difficulty in seeing such bright objects against the clear sky seems 
mainly to be in getting one's eyes focused at infinity -- at least it is 
for me.  It really helps both in initially spotting an object and then 
continuing to follow it if you have a nearby eference such as a pole, 
tree, or building.  Or another bright celestial object, like the Moon.
Gene Lucas
(17250)
Keith Parizek wrote:
> Hi Darrell-  One of the big problems to finding Venus in the daytime sky 
> naked eye is that your eyes normally focus at 12 to 15 feet if you are not 
> reading a book or newspaper or looking at a distant mountain.  Getting your 
> eyes to focus at infinity is a real trick and having the moon handy to get 
> to the infinity focus  did the trick for you.  Up in Alpine finding Venus in 
> the daytime is easy and when your eyes snap into infinity focus it is 
> amazing how prominent it is in the dark blue sky.  As your eyes are 
> approaching infinity focus I am always overwhelmed by the amount of 
> particles, spider webs, etc you see floating over you.  These are a real 
> distraction, but once you focus past them Venus snaps out at you in full 
> glory.  I followed Jupiter once into early daylight, but nothing compares to 
> Venus blazing away in bright sunlight.  The same thing applies with an 
> optical telescope.  If you do not have it focused at infinity you can be 
> looking directly at Venus, but will not see it due to it being way out of 
> focus.
>
> Regards
> Keith Parizek
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