Venus...

Hi all,

i got up this morning for work at 6 o clk...when i went outside the sky was very clear and i looked to venus it looked to be a beatifull "half moon shape" am i right in saying that? as i wasnt at home i had no binos or scope have a good look so i saw it with the naked eye! What would be the reason for this shape??

Think the weather man was wrong calm night on waterford coastal area lastnight and equally as calm early this morning!!

hi sat5, you must have great lamps on you to see venus as a crescent. I began my love affair with astronomy first time round as a small child with a santa claus scope - sat on a wee tripod on my window sill in dublin. the first thing (and with the exception of the moon) the only thing i could see was that crescent its pretty fantastic sight.




"Time flys like an arrow, fruit flies like banana's)

Hmm... Venus is exhibiting a gibbous phase at the moment - not a cresent! You'd have to have extremely good eyesight to see phase on Venus without a telescope! I imagine the aparant phase is down to your gummy eyes at that time of the morning

Phil.

Venus is currently a 2/3 gibbious phase at about 14 arc seconds in size, no way at that size were you seeing its phase.
I also saw in on sunday morning and it was really bright, something that bright is not east to see as a point with the naked eye.

Many many years ago, Patrick Moore did an interesting experiment on The Sky at Night to see what people could see of the phase of Venus with the naked eye, he received all kinds of cresents but at the time Venus was like the current tiny gibbious phase, some people will see what they want to see. I dont think its ever possible to see a Venus shape with the naked eye.

I dont think its ever possible to see a Venus shape with the naked eye.

I think that when Venus is a crescent it is possible to discern that there is something "wrong" with the shape - ie, it is not round. In the same way as 10x50 binos will indicate that Saturn is oval without actually showing the rings. It is close to the margin of visibility but not quite there.

Maybe I was been too general, during its big phases I havent been able to decidely make it out, then again I wear glasses.