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Doug Royer, extending standard technique from faint stars to the
brightest of planets, wrote:

> Try this trick also on Venus as one may view Venus in early C.T. when
> conditions are right.

If you know just where to look, Venus can be visible to the naked eye in
full daylight. I have only tried finding it the once but, that time, I
did find it. Needed some concentration to keep it in sight though, since
you have to look in exactly the right place or it disappears. (Maybe it
needs the higher resolution of your retina's fovea to be able to
distinguish the small patch of brighter light from the general
brightness of a blue sky.)

Why can't we use Venus to get a day-time position line? I'm guessing
that a sextant telescope doesn't help because its light-gathering power
brightens the blue sky as much as the planet, meaning that it is no
easier to hold the image with a sextant than to view Venus with a naked
eye, hence making the observation impractical.


Trevor Kenchington


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Trevor J. Kenchington PhD                         Gadus@iStar.ca
Gadus Associates,                                 Office(902) 889-9250
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Nova Scotia  B0J 2L0, CANADA                      Home  (902) 889-3555

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