Saturday, February 28, 2009

Moon and Venus high (Toronto)

Yesterday and this morning there was some chatter about the Moon-Venus conjunction. This afternoon, Tai said something very interesting in his email:
"With Venus close to the moon as it is now, you can find it in full daylight without too much trouble.  Just stand in the shade, find the Moon and look about 4 finger-widths along the ecliptic...  maybe 6-8 degrees over?  Very neat.  I've seen it near dusk and sunrise before, never managed to find it in full daylight until now."
I was all done my set up for this evening. I was warming up inside. But I high-tailed it back outside, with binoculars, to try to spot it. Right on target (although 4 fingers is more like 15 degrees). Surprisingly bright in the binos! I tried to see it naked eye but without my proper eyeglasses, I couldn't pick it out.

I did some fiddling in Stellarium to figure my directions and then easily found Venus in the telescope. Cool! A fantastic thin crescent. It is so large!

With my eyeglasses, I was able to easily see it naked, er, unmagnified eye! Incredibly easy. Just gotta know where to look. And where to focus.

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