Venus -clouds or no clouds?

[38degsouth]

So the look on my 4yo boy's face when he saw Saturn and Jupiter in the eyepiece for the first time was absolutely priceless! I fear he won't even recognise Venus because all the media/literature now seem to show it as a cloudless mottled brown terrestrial disk -sigh..

[MichaelSW]

Dean.

G'day.

I have just come in from looking at Venus about 15 minutes ago - 07:45hrs in Brisbane. Plenty of separation from The Sun, and with a Last Quarter-ish Moon further West.

Venus had a similar phase appearance. I reckon your Son might get a buzz from seeing it in the daytime.

Cheers.

[38degsouth]

Hi Michael,

Thanks. We're often up quite early and enjoy heading out to the back yard to say good morning to Venus. We even saw Mercury a few weeks ago too! I haven't tried showing my boy Venus in the daytime yet -maybe I'll wait 'till the moon is close by as a handy pointer.

Following up on my original post: The first time my 4yo boy saw Venus in the telescope he said it was the moon, which I totally expected him to say, considering the current phase. Then of course I had to explain that Venus is not viewed as being brown, as commonly portrayed in the books, but that it's totally covered in thick clouds (and that it's way hotter there than the bbq)!

Regards, Dean

Pic shows what I'm up against when reading solar system books with the boy...

[Atmos]

I've never looked at Venus through anything other than my old 10" LX200 where it would usually look like a collidascope :P
Should point something better at it some day.

[MichaelSW]

Dean,

G'day.

Stellarium shows Venus and The Moon are pretty close in 3 days - the 21st.

I just went outside for a Mark 1 eyeball look (with my spectacles on). We have a clear sky here today. 'Draw' a line Moon to The Sun and there sits Venus @ 2 X 25 degree hand spans East of The Moon and maybe just a tad above the line. Clear as day!!!

Cheers.

[38degsouth]

Thanks Michael, here's hoping for clear skies on the 21st! Cloudy morning here in Melb today...

My previous daylight Venus spotting experience (to show others) has always been:

-trying to find it
-finding it
-trying to line up a nearby terrestrial feature
-took eyes off Venus (and losing sight of it) while trying to line up said feature
-repeat that process a few times lol
-finally lock onto Venus against feature
-then show everyone!

Most are impressed at how obvious it is when looking in the right spot ..and that it can indeed be seen during the day!

Regards, Dean

[glend]

Several years ago there was a daytime occulation of Saturn. It appeared to dive into the Moon. Easily seen with a red filter to enhance the contrast, darkens the bright blue sky. A year later i witnessed a Venus Moon occulation during daytime out at Bretti. The Moon certainly gets around.

[sil]

My first good views of Venus blew me away. I didn't expect it to be a crescent and have phases like the moon. I was expecting a bright disc only. Was happy to be wrong :)