Venus visible in daylight

It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this morning the
sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just before sunrise and
marked a position where Venus was lined up with a chimney, then looked again
40 minutes later. Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky as long as you
know approximately where to look. Clearly visible and bright, at 0740, well
after sunrise this morning 5 October. Just looked again at 0750, still
there despite having the Sun shining directly on me.

Earlier, I went out and saw an impressive line-up of planets and waning
crescent Moon, with bright and very orange Mars high up near Castor and
Pollux, brilliant Venus, and fainter Saturn. Predictions suggest we are in
for a few clear days and nights, so grab 'em.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

"Mike Dworetsky" wrote in message
...
It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this morning the
sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just before sunrise and
marked a position where Venus was lined up with a chimney, then looked
again 40 minutes later. Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky as long
as you


Still easily visible at 0925 but you have to know exactly where to look.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

"Mike Dworetsky" wrote in message
...
It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this morning the
sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just before sunrise and
marked a position where Venus was lined up with a chimney, then looked
again 40 minutes later. Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky as long
as you know approximately where to look. Clearly visible and bright, at
0740, well after sunrise this morning 5 October. Just looked again at
0750, still there despite having the Sun shining directly on me.

Earlier, I went out and saw an impressive line-up of planets and waning
crescent Moon, with bright and very orange Mars high up near Castor and
Pollux, brilliant Venus, and fainter Saturn. Predictions suggest we are
in for a few clear days and nights, so grab 'em.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

I was looking for Andromeda (the galaxy) last night through 10x50
binoculars.

I could definitely see it but it was very faint, would I need to use a
telescope to discern the disk structure or just dark skies?

"MichaelJP" wrote in message
. ..

"Mike Dworetsky" wrote in message
...
It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this morning
the sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just before sunrise
and marked a position where Venus was lined up with a chimney, then
looked again 40 minutes later. Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky
as long as you know approximately where to look. Clearly visible and
bright, at 0740, well after sunrise this morning 5 October. Just looked
again at 0750, still there despite having the Sun shining directly on me.

Earlier, I went out and saw an impressive line-up of planets and waning
crescent Moon, with bright and very orange Mars high up near Castor and
Pollux, brilliant Venus, and fainter Saturn. Predictions suggest we are
in for a few clear days and nights, so grab 'em.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

I was looking for Andromeda (the galaxy) last night through 10x50
binoculars.

I could definitely see it but it was very faint, would I need to use a
telescope to discern the disk structure or just dark skies?


I was looking at M31 with a 10" Dob last night, I could discern the bright
centre easily and, with a bit of averted vision, the hazy disk surrounding
the galactic centre, though it was indistinct - but individual stars could
not be seen. We tried to view it in a 16" Meade SCT, but computer problems
put paid to that. Personally, I preferred the view in my £9.99 Bresser 10x50
bins of the fuzzy blob against a star-filled background. Magic. You need a
really big scope to see individual stars, or resort to some CCD photography.

Bob H

"Mike Dworetsky" wrote

Still easily visible at 0925 but you have to know exactly where to look.


Found it at about 1300 with binoculars. Took a while with all the cloud
passing by.

"MichaelJP" wrote in message
. ..

"Mike Dworetsky" wrote in message
...
It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this morning
the sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just before sunrise
and marked a position where Venus was lined up with a chimney, then
looked again 40 minutes later. Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky
as long as you know approximately where to look. Clearly visible and
bright, at 0740, well after sunrise this morning 5 October. Just looked
again at 0750, still there despite having the Sun shining directly on me.

Earlier, I went out and saw an impressive line-up of planets and waning
crescent Moon, with bright and very orange Mars high up near Castor and
Pollux, brilliant Venus, and fainter Saturn. Predictions suggest we are
in for a few clear days and nights, so grab 'em.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

I was looking for Andromeda (the galaxy) last night through 10x50
binoculars.

I could definitely see it but it was very faint, would I need to use a
telescope to discern the disk structure or just dark skies?



You would need to take a long exposure (3-4 mins) with a CCD using a
telescope of at least 6-inches aperture. You would need to have a larger
format CCD to take in enough galaxy to see the spiral arms, or a focal
reducer, or both.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 06:52:27 GMT, Mike Dworetsky wrote:

It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this
morning the sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just
before sunrise and marked a position where Venus was lined up with
a chimney, then looked again 40 minutes later. Venus is easy to
see in a clear blue sky as long as you know approximately where to
look. Clearly visible and bright, at 0740, well after sunrise
this morning 5 October. Just looked again at 0750, still there
despite having the Sun shining directly on me.

A few days ago, I got up at about 5.45am to let the dog out - and was
shocked by how bright venus was. I had to double check with a
stellarium program to make sure that it was venus and not some other
phenomenon. I'd never ever seen it so bright.

On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 20:35:49 +0100, "Mike Dworetsky"
wrote:

You would need to take a long exposure (3-4 mins) with a CCD using a
telescope of at least 6-inches aperture. You would need to have a larger
format CCD to take in enough galaxy to see the spiral arms, or a focal
reducer, or both.

You can get it nicely with smaller refractors Mike. A ZS66 or ED80
(80mm) fitted with a focal reducer will record the core plus the
brighter spiral arms with a DSLR or CCD camera in a couple of minutes.

A 3 minute exposure with a 76mm f/4 scope
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/DSO/200..._IMG_9925b.jpg

A stacked result using an 80mm ED80 refractor and focal reducer
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/DSO/M31-2006.html

A hybrid result using data from both scopes...
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/DSO/200...ybrid_1024.jpg

On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 07:52:27 +0100, "Mike Dworetsky"
wrote:

It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this morning the
sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just before sunrise and
marked a position where Venus was lined up with a chimney, then looked again
40 minutes later. Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky as long as you
know approximately where to look. Clearly visible and bright, at 0740, well
after sunrise this morning 5 October. Just looked again at 0750, still
there despite having the Sun shining directly on me.

Earlier, I went out and saw an impressive line-up of planets and waning
crescent Moon, with bright and very orange Mars high up near Castor and
Pollux, brilliant Venus, and fainter Saturn. Predictions suggest we are in
for a few clear days and nights, so grab 'em.


The Moon can be used to find Venus on Sunday (7th). For most of the
day in the U.K., Venus will be 3 or 4 degrees to the lower right of
the Moon. All you have to do is find the Moon...

Dave W.

"Rexx Magnus" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 06:52:27 GMT, Mike Dworetsky wrote:

It is hardly news to those who read uk.sci.astronomy, but this
morning the sky is unusually clear and blue, so I went out just
before sunrise and marked a position where Venus was lined up with
a chimney, then looked again 40 minutes later. Venus is easy to
see in a clear blue sky as long as you know approximately where to
look. Clearly visible and bright, at 0740, well after sunrise
this morning 5 October. Just looked again at 0750, still there
despite having the Sun shining directly on me.


A few years ago I was on holiday in the Canaries when I was
Laid on my back sun bathing and looked up at the deep blue sky
and, purely by chance, spotted venus. Not bad for lunch time!
Even more interesting is that I was wearing prescription sunglasses.

My eyes are about 2 dioptres short sighted so I would not have seen it
without
the correction of the prescription lenses.

Paulus