Wonderful picture of Orbit of Venus

To this end, I apologize for the overexposure ....

No need - as I say, it's a beautiful image. :notworthy:

hi all,

I actually missed Shane's comment on another thread about the visibility of Venus and how he saw it in the morning sky late January . . . including while driving up to the Big Smoke. Similarly, John O'Neill (IAS) and I nearly came a cropper a good few years ago while staring at the planet and not the road while navigating some back lanes to Schull.

I was reading up a bit more last night about the planet's appearance in late March 2009 and simulated the view in Skyglobe. It looks like our chance to see it at the moment of inferior conjunction will be a difficult observation but not impossible. The Sun will be 2 degrees below the horizon with Venus 2 degrees above. The best way is probably scan the horizon immediately after sunset with binoculars to find the planet and then try and see it with the unaided eye.

In one of his Mathematical Astronomy Morsels books (forgotten which one I was reading last night of the three he's published), Jean Meeus had a chapter on the possibility of seeing Venus with the unaided eye in both the morning and evening sky ON THE SAME DAY! That chance falls for us on March 25th, 2009 and is very favourable, with the planet well above the horizon before sunrise and after sunset.

of course it won't be cloudy that day . . . will it ??????????

John