On Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 7:20:29 AM UTC-5, Mike Collins wrote:
Gerald Kelleher wrote:
We can only see to the left and right of the stationary Sun during a
total eclipse otherwise humanity references the motions of the faster
moving Mercury and Venus after they enter the circle of illumination
(dusk) or just as they exit it (dawn).

No! Venus can be seen at noon on many cloudless days. The difficulty is
finding it and focussing on infinity in daytime. At noon you need to be in
shade. My yard (patio to Americans) is perfect for this since the house is
to the north. I haven’t yet seen Venus at local noon but I’ve seen it half
an hour from noon. There are two easy ways to find it in daylight. If Venus
rises before the sun just observe it every hour or so. Otherwise the best
way to follow it is on the days when it appears close to the moon. In hazy
British and Irish skies it’s often easier to find Venus with binoculars.
It’s then not too difficult to find Venus with the naked eye. Clouds in an
otherwise clear sky can be an aid to focusing on “infinity”.
Software which can give you altitude and azimuth is also useful as is a
goto telescope.
In better climates it’s much easier. Unfortunately when I was at Uluru the
sky was hazy. This didn’t affect the almost unbearable heat.
I had an acquaintance who successfully observed Sirius during the day in
Zimbabwe. You can easily find his observations on the internet.

I saw Venus and Jupiter very brightly in mid-daytime during the
total solar eclipse on August 21st. I will confess that by
about 40 minutes afterward I could no longer see either one,
even though I knew where to look.