Daytime Venus

circumpolar (Matt) · #1 06-03-2008, 05:59 AM

Today, March 6th, is a good time to try and view Venus during the day.

If you can spot the cresent moon in the sky, try to find Venus just slightly to the west. Imagine that the horns of the cresent moon are pointing at Venus.
The two start the day about 1 degree appart and slowly double that distance by early afternoon.

If you continue a line from the moon through past Venus, with a telescope you may just be able to see Mercury as well. Much harder. Better as an early morning target.

Kokatha man · #2 06-03-2008, 09:11 AM

[quote=circumpolar;303621]Today, March 6th, is a good time to try and view Venus during the day.

.....and it was a great sight this morning; what with the thin crescent moon, Venus and Mercury all together shining brightly; and way up higher, and motoring towards the zenith, Jupiter. I was tinkering around with a little Nexstar 80 GTL I bought cheap that I'm hoping to take over to Vic for my 10 year old grandson, checking everything - I was surprised how well it showed disc details at 90x in the brightening sky!

circumpolar (Matt) · #3 06-03-2008, 06:11 PM

Finding the moon today was not easy. After first spotting the moon this morning I did a quick "finger/thumb" at arms length for latter reference.

I was able to find the moon and Venus at about 9:30, 11:00 and again at 2:00pm. It is amazing how slim the cresent was getting this afternoon! Very hard to find but worth the effort.

I only use 16x50 Binos. So Mercury was out of the question.