Daytime Viewing?

Hi All,

Can you see Jupiter and Saturn during 'sun up' hours?

I know light drowns them out, but do they actually disappear 100% or is there still something there?

Graham.

The brighter objects yes.
Saturn right now, no, coz it's close to the sun
Obviously NEVER go anywhere NEAR the Sun with
A scope or binos when its up. One mistake and you are BLIND.
Aside from the warning.
Ive observed Venus, Saturn & Jupiter in sun up times
Along with varipus bright stars and the Iss.
Mskes for a different view alright.
Check stellarium to give ypu an idea of whats to see

Graham wrote:

Can you see Jupiter and Saturn during 'sun up' hours?

Yes, with extreme care and only if you know exactly what your doing.
Always err on the side of caution.

One of your best options Graham is by using a GoTo-mounted telescope. The benefit of using those is obvious - you just need to select your (bright) daytime target, and press 'GoTo'!

Like the others said, do your best to NOT look for anything close to the Sun. What would you call close, you ask? Try 4 to 5 lengths of your closed fist held out at arms length. This simulates roughly 5 arc degrees of distance per fist, so thats 20 to 25 degrees away from the Sun - I would call this your minimum safe distance.

An extra tip for you, should you try looking for anything with your telescope. Position yourself in a shadow of e.g. a building. This will reduce overall glare, even if it's just an illusion in reality (like the way you shield your eyes with your hand when looking in the direction of the Sun at something far away).

If you don't have a GoTo mount, then you will need tojudge where to point and scan through the area. Do so at low power, but slowly. Depending on how bright the object you're looking for, you can miss it in a bright sky. Patience will win it for you in the end.

Hope this helps,

Seanie.

Yea, as Seanie said, a GOTO telescope is a must really.
I've seen Mercury, Venus, Jupiter & Saturn with a scope during the daytime.
Equatorial could bands can be seen on Jupiter.
Interesting experiement.

Michael.

Another tip for you Graham. In case you don't know, all the planets, Moon, and Sun travel along an invisible line called the ecliptic. During daytime currently, the Moon is a daytime object. If you draw a line connecting the Moon and the Sun, you have the ecliptic! Continue it in either direction, and somewhere along this 'line' will be the planets. This is a great way of narrowing down the location of what you want to see. Using something like Stellarium (free software) to find your target, you now have a technique to find it in the sky during daytime.

Hope this also helps,

Seanie.