Venus, Jupiter and Mars in broad daylight

[tornado33]

Howdy
Ive just packed up my 10 inch f5.6 scope after using it and the Argo Navis to see the above planets. (was viewing around 3:30pm) I put on solar filter then aligned the Argo Navis off the Sun. Then moved scope safely away, removed filter (using a magnetic torch to rebalance the scope) then dialled up Jupiter on the Argo navis. There it was! Well inside the 16mm Nagler field of view. Faint against the bright blue sky. I got daring, wend for Mars next. Tried several times to see it, checking the Argo Navis and moving scope till the guide numbers went to 0.00 both axes then peering carefully through the eyepiece. I was nearly going to give up when there it was! almost dead centre, but gee it was faint, I lost it and recovered it several times, it was like trying to spot venus in the daytime sky naked eye. But it was there, a tiny faint disc.

On to Mercury but it was far too close to the Sun to safely view, sunlight was falling on the mirror making it far too dangerous. So on to Venus, it was easy, Argo Navis putting it almost dead centre a brilliand white disc, fully round. So the Argo Navis is great for both night and daytime viewing. So exciting seeing Mars in the day too! When Sirius is well placed I will try for it too.

Note, as the Sun is up, great care needs to be taken not to accidentally sweep across it while viewing, or even when not viewing, the heat will damage the scope too, so take great care when doing this yourself.
Scott

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Brilliant Scott! Are you going to go for Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto tonight to finish it off

[maksutover]

WOW thats cool! ive seen venus in daylight before but never jupiter! well done.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Congratulations on capturing daytime planets.

[rmcpb (Rob)]

Now that is a great idea. With all the night time cloud here I think daylight observing is the go so maybe a test of the manual setting circles is in order I wonder if its possible??

[sheeny (Al)]

Good one Scott!

I often like to try to find Jupiter and Venus by eye during the day, and have found both, but I haven't done any daytime scope work on anything other than the sun (with a solar filter of course) and the moon.

Al.

[Orion]

Next thing to do Scott is to buy a web cam and do some planetary work.

[tornado33]

Thanks all
yes indeed
I think if my mirror was cooled according to that talk at last years Lostock camp, the Sutching mirror in my scope could give great results with a webcam

Seeing Mars in daytime was the most exciting thing. Ive had much better days where the sky is a nice deep blue. When I get another day like that I must try for some daytime stars Saturn might be dooable too.
Scott

[davidpretorius]

wow, top stuff