NavList:

Bob Goethe, you wrote:
" I see that on July 29, the moon will be just east of Aldebaran.  The moon will only be 20% illuminated, but if I can spot it, I have an aiming point to use as I try to find Aldebaran."

Ooo, yes, that's a good one! For those of you out west in North America, the star will be very near the Moon. It will be a nice occultation for parts of the Canadian maritimes, the majority of the eastern USA, down through Texas and most of Mexico (for other areas, see the map below). Aldebaran will emerge from behind the Moon around 7am here in southern New England. If we have good transparency (very clear skies), I'm sure it will be visible with magnification in a small telescope (which increases the contrast between star and sky). How about in binoculars? And will it show up in raw digital camera images with some processing?? Or will it be lost in the noise?

I suppose another useful experiment would be to try photographing Venus in daylight through a full cycle of brightness variation. How low can we go?

I just did a quick Google search on stars in daylight with a digital camera. The first hit describes a super digital camera that apparently would be able to see a great many stars in daylight (it doesn't exist as commercial product and would cost over $100,000 to make, so... no). Be sure to look at the top five hits in that search. We have been here before, of course, but I'm still surprised NavList messages are in the top five!

Frank Reed
ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA