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David C,

There should be no doubt that you can find it in binoculars. I use cheap 7x35 binoculars --nothing fancy. Venus is very bright. It's a bit low in altitude at your latitude, but that's at least more "comfortable". Try some of those tricks we've discussed before. Find a nearby tree in the right general direction with some easily identified limbs on its margin. Wait for the azimuth of Venus to be close to the tree limbs. Next grab a sextant and set it, just roughly for the altitude of Venus. What tree limb matches that altitude? Now, without moving (a very small change in position spoils it all), grab your binoculars and scan the sky along the edge of the tree at the correct altitude. But make sure you don't re-focus on the tree limbs. The binoculars should be at infinite focus. Venus will jump right out.

Now... try naked-eye, without binoculars... With Venus still visible in your binoculars, take a few steps until it is almost perfectly placed off the tip of a foreground tree limb. Now lower the binoculars, find that aligned tree limb (and remember, don't move even one step!) and scan carefully and slowly. Move your visual target by the smallest steps you can manage and scan in a simple rectangular grid. It may be invisible until your central vision (the fovea of your retina) falls right on it. See it?? If not, well, to hell with it. Your vision might just be a little imperfect for this task. Nonetheless, if you've seen it in daylight in binoculars, which really should be possible and even easy after a little experimentation, then count it a success! :)

Frank Reed