[APML] OT - Daytime planets

["Greg Hartke" <ghartke@adelphia.net>]

For those interested in this sort of thing...

I happened to be walking into my house a bit before 6 PM and remembered that
this is a good time to see Venus before sunset. I only remembered it was
close to the crescent Moon but figured with a little searching I should be
able to find it. I used an old timer's trick. I formed my hands into a
child's mockery of binoculars to shield myself from glare. It only took a
couple of minutes, too, to find Venus well above the crescent Moon. Pretty
cool. Local sunset was 6:22 so I beat it by about 20 minutes. The last time
I saw Venus in daytime with the naked eye was in the midafternoon but I used
an LX-200 to get me in the general vicinity before finding it without aid.
As usual with daytime observations of Venus (or Jupiter, I've done that
too), it was easy to see once I knew where to look. I reckon it'll be a lot
easier tomorrow when it's even closer to the Moon. Conditions today were
excellent here with cloudless skies and high transparency since the dew
point was 11 F.

Don't forget to look tomorrow if it's clear! You can wow all your friends
and coworkers who won't believe it's even possible. ;)

Regards,

Greg Hartke
Sykesville, MD USA


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