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Space Science

Venus at Peak of Brightness 25

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the me-and-my-shadow dept.
Jotii writes "The planet Venus is right now at its peak of brightness. Until the third of December, you will actually be able to see shadows cast by Venus. From the article: "Venus is reaching its peak brightness for 2005 and casting its very best shadows right now." More from the article: 'Difficult, yes, but worth the effort, he says. After all, how many people have seen themselves silhouetted by the light of another planet? If you'd like to try, this is the week. Your attempt must come before Dec. 3rd. After that, the crescent moon will join Venus in the evening sky, and any shadows you see then will be moon shadows.'"
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Venus at Peak of Brightness More

Venus at Peak of Brightness

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  • Grr... (Score:4, Funny)

    by BrainInAJar ( 584756 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @08:04PM (#14133844)
    Too bad I live in the north west... I never get to see anything in the sky that isn't water.
    • Yes, but the grass is always green! :)

      Come on, look on the bright side!

      Don't you think women in rain coats are sexy?!

      • Yes, but the grass is always green! :)

        Come on, look on the bright side!

        Don't you think women in rain coats are sexy?!

        On a related tangental note, perhaps you could tell me something.

        Where is Carmen Sandiego?
        Carmen Sandiego.
        Where on Earth can she be?

  • Pesky light pollution (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ArwynH ( 883499 )

    FTA mentions it briefly, but due to light pollution most of us won't be able to do this easily. If you live anywhere near a big city chances are the brightest thing in the sky will be Plasma screen adverts bouncing off it.

    Pity really, it would be a pointless thing to do, but at least you could boast about it in your old age...

    • Yeah, last night I noticed that Venus was unusually bright but it wasn't that bright! Maybe in a wilderness area you might be able to get a shadow, but certainly not anyplace urban.

  • Bright enough to see in the day also (Score:4, Informative)

    by Colonel Blimp ( 642760 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @09:36PM (#14134341)
    If you know where to look and you have a clear sky, you can see Venus in the day time. Best time to look is after noon, 3-4 hours before sunset. Its pretty odd to see something like that in the clear blue sky.
    • I really enjoy daylight unaided sightings of venus; it just feels amazing to me to see a planet in broad daylight. The funny thing is that after you find it, if you look away, and then look back, you can't miss it! A good empheris is helpful to narrow the search to a small part of the sky. This one at JPL [nasa.gov] is my favorite.
    • I am so going to have to try this tomorrow.

      Way back in high school, I used to have a "zero period" class that started at 7:00am. I'd start walking to school early enough that Venus was still quite visible, and I'd try to keep it in view as long as possible as the sky lightened.
    • Hey, thanks for giving me the idea. I tried it on my walk to and from lunch today, and succeeded in spotting Venus four times over a 45-minute period!
  • Would I need to use my flash to get a picture of the shadow? ;-)
    • Heh. I know this is a joke, but a few years ago I watched a lunar eclipse from my balcony. At one point one of my neighbors came out and started taking pictures of the moon -- with the flash. One can just mean you forgot to turn it off, but two or more?

      It reminded me of the people you occasionally see at Disneyland taking flash photos in Star Tours, not realizing they're likely to get a washed-out white screen instead of a picture of the Death Star.
  • I wonder what parts of the world can see venus right now. I'm near the equator in Thailand, and have not noticed anything extra bright in the sky.

    Now that I know it's supposed to be near the moon, at least I'll have some place to look specificly.

    • Re:From where? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Colonel Blimp ( 642760 )
      it can be seen anywhere.

      In Thailand, look just after sunset in the west sky, its the very bright star, you can't miss it. It sets about 90 minutes after sunset.

      Even the smog of Bangkok can't cloak it!

  • when mars aligns (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    can I finally ask a girl out?

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