Re: Urban Fables: Stellar by Sunlight

[Ken Caviness <caviness@SOUTHERN.EDU>]

When I was first invited to see Venus in broad daylight I was extremely
skeptical.  After all, "everyone knows" that you can only see the stars
(and planets) at night.  But "seeing is believing", and after a
colleague showed me exactly where to look, I saw it right away.

Seeing Jupiter in daylight is harder.  Not only did I have to know
exactly where to look, but also had to start to slightly unfocus my gaze
before the tiny speck of light caught my eye.  After seeing it I could
then focus on it and see it clearly, but a glance away would make me
lose it again.

Saturday night I took my 8-yr-old son outside and showed him Jupiter,
Saturn and Mars.  It's a whole bunch easier after dark!

Ken Caviness
Physics, SAU


Brian Whatcott wrote:
> 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.
>
> So the debunking of daytime planetary sights is the urban fable after all.
> This would have just been amusing, until I realised that there have been
> many many people with telescopes capable of pointing at the brightest point
> object in the sky by daylight for many years - but I never heard of a
> confirmation before....
> (You apparently don't need a telescope to see the effect, but you do need
> to know where to look.)
>
> Brian Whatcott
>    Altus OK                      Eureka!