May 24 2005
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Venus
There’s nothing mind-blowing today on the BABlog. I just wanted to say something.
I finally bought myself a tripod for the monster 15×70 binoculars I’ve had for a year, because the binocs are a little bit too big to hold steady with just my hand. We put up a bird feeder in the back yard the other day, and the finches have discovered it. Finches are jittery and fly away if they spot you, so being able to stand inside my house and watch them through the binocs is nice. The goldfinches were so yellow it made my brain hurt.
When the Sun set, I looked up the position of Venus using software, and saw that it was only 15 degrees above the horizon– not much more than the span out your hand when held out at arm’s length. So I took the rig outside to my back porch (finches be damned) to take a look at our planetary fraternal twin.
Even though the sky was still bright, Venus was a snap to find. I just locked the tripod in the up-and-down direction, then scanned back-and-forth. Bang! There she was.
I love seeing Venus (and Jupiter too) when the Sun has just set and the sky is still blue. At the moment I saw it, not even three hours ago as I write this, Venus was about 245 million kilometers away (150 million miles). Imagine! The light from Venus traveled all the way to the Sun, then past it another 150 million kilometers, through the binoculars and finally into my eyes, revealing Venus as a brilliant white disk.
Once I knew where to look, I could spot Venus– barely!– with my unaided eye, too. The Little Astronomer took a peek, and saw it too. Then I showed her how to spot it with just her eye (start at the ventilation pipe in our roof, then go up the width of two fingers held at arm’s length… “I see it!”).
Venus will be in our evening sky, making it pretty easy to see, for the rest of 2005. By the end of the year, it’ll start to move toward the Sun quickly, becoming a thin crescent, and getting incredibly bright (expect more UFO reports, folks).
It’ll be nice to see it that way. I sometimes forget to go outside and just look up, and hey– that’s what astronomy is all about.
Cool- I alway’s miss it, It’s just too low on the horizen for my location.
I did see it last year in brord daylight. That was cool :).
cool! those moments with your little astronomers around are priceless!
Hey, wait a minute!
The light came from the sun, travelled Away from us to Venus, then bounced back past the sun, and the rest of the way to Earth. Add a few million more miles please.
I have a pair of 20×80s and use a parallelogram mount for them. Venus is very nice in them. I also enjoy start clusters that cover large areas of the sky. Under a VERY dark sky (Sacramento Peak in NM) the Andromeda galaxy is spectacular…through binoculars!
They are also great for comets…happy huhting!
Rob
Hey, wait a minute..
Isn’t the light from Venus actually reflected from the Sun? So the trip to your eye actually starts there, travels Away from us to Venus, Then makes the return trip to my 18×50is binoculars.
Venus being back means I’ll get asked “HEY WHAT’S THAT BRIGHT STAR OVER THERE?” 15 times every week by my folks just like the last time. Sigh. They’ll get it someday.
I’ll be able to spot it with my new scope though!
Nice one, BA. It reminds me of the time I first saw the planets (well, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars - I have never knowingly seen Mercury, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto). I’ll be sure to keep a look out if I happen to be out and about near sunset (and if it isn’t cloudy … we’ve had a lot of cloud this week).
Lucky guy, just a week ago someone broke into my house and stole my Fujinons (with tripod and head), my little camping Nikons, my ETX90 (with tripod and eyepieces), and my motorcycle jacket. Just as the clouds left for the first time in almost 2 months. Bastids. Temporarily curtailed my two big hobbies. Amazing how much 3 chunks of glass and part of a dead cow are worth (and missed).
Littleboy, I know how you feel. I had a telescope stolen about 15 years ago (it was only a 60×60 refractor, but it was my first ’scope).
I had a similar experience with an introductory astronomy class– we got out on the roof in twilight and I said something about seeing Venus in daylight “somewhere over there” and they all lit up with “I see it Dr. Storrs! Over there!” Amazing what 20 years will do to your eyes…
I was at a track meet last night (I teach and coach) and we saw Venus through a crack in the clouds after sunset. I pointed it out to the other coaches and athletes nearby at the time. A suprisingly large number of them seemed somewhat skeptical of it being Venus.
Rob
Hey, those are the exact same binoculars that I have (well, I have two other pairs and a 90 mm ETX too). My son and I used to challenge each other, when Venus was appropriately located, to find it in the middle of the day without optical aids. Lots of fun.