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Re: Urban Fables: Stellar by Sunlight



I wasn't aware that seeing planets during the day was considered to
be an urban myth. I've seen Venus during the daytime. It was so
bright, that I have no trouble believing people who say that Sirius
can be seen. Locating Venus was a bit tricky, even though I knew
about how far away from the Sun to look. I used the flat roof of a
nearby building to aid my raster scan (no matter how hard we try, the
natural motion of our eyes apparently makes them very bad at raster
scans). Once found, though, it was so bright that I wondered why I
had so much trouble. Of course, I then blinked and had to find it
all over again.

I was amused to hear on NPR this morning that a denizen of a canyon retreat
reported he could see Venus at noon, from his deep canyon vantage.

Did this call to mind the "You can see stars from a deep shaft" urban
fable? Not so fabulous, it seems, if (and only if) you know where to look
for Venus by daylight.


================================
Stephen D. Murray
Physicist, A Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Email: sdmurray@llnl.gov
Phone: (925) 423-9382
FAX: (925) 423-0925
================================