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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Venus in daylight
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2020 Mar 31, 13:47 -0700
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2020 Mar 31, 13:47 -0700
Saw Venus about 15 minutes ago, around 4:25pm EDT ...with just my two eyes. Today the sequence of tricks goes like this.
- Check the app. Altitude about 70°, azimuth around 202°.
- Spot Moon in sky. Venus will be closely aligned along the arc from the Moon to the Sun.
- Scan the sky with binoculars... Aha! Got it (only took me about 30 seconds).
- Now "walk it" to a tree limb. Keeping it in view in the binoculars, I moved until Venus was sitting near the end of a branch in the binoculars.
- Lower binoculars. Fine that tree branch. And... there it is! Easy without any optical aid. And I mean easy.
- Now grab the sextant, and oh that's uncomfortable. I'll wait til later. :)
- Step inside. Have a snack. Come out five minutes later. And there it is again. Naked eye Venus. Easy! Once you know where to look, it's hard to believe it's not completely obvious all the time. It's a crisp bright white dot in the blue sky.
Frank Reed
