NavList:

Frank wropte

Most observers look too low when told to look at a spot that's 45° or 60° or 75° high. Test it at night with stars of known altitude.

My problem  may be that I am not looking high enough. This afternoon I laid on a piece of carpet on the damp grass and tried to look from the zenith down rather than the horizon up but was unsuccessful. Than at about 8 30pm local time I went outside. The sky was nearly dark and I could see

Venus alt 38°

Jupiter alt  62°

Saturn alt 67°

62° and 67° arre very very very high!  The position of the zenith is very deceptive. As I tilted my head back I thought that I was looking past the zenith to the south. Tomorrow if the sky is clear I will lay on my back and not waste time scanning the lower altitudes.

I have a true north mark on a hill that I have detemined by noon observations. Today I aligned a polar diagram in an app with north and the app told me where to look for venus.

Now something I have just thought of. Running approximately east-west is a fence. If I measure the height of the fence a  little bit of trig will tell me how far my head neads to be from the fence for the required altitude. I can use the fence to obscure the part of the ky I do not need to scan. Maybe even block out the sun.