for real???

[Wally]

This excerpt from Meade's "what can you see" section of their Customer Support page:

Mercury and Venus: Seen through the Meade Model 230, Mercury and Venus move through a series of Moonlike phases–crescent, half, and full–as they orbit the Sun. Larger telescope models can occasionally show dusky markings on the surface of Venus.



I've never heard of there being times where surface features of Venus can be seen. Isn't is always completely cloud covered???

[GrapesOfWrath]

Is it really talking about surface features? After all, Jupiter is completely cloud-covered too.

[ToSeek]

On 2001-12-07 11:41, Wally wrote:
I've never heard of there being times where surface features of Venus can be seen.


You can do it with radar (http://www-pdsimage.jpl.nasa.gov/PDS/public/magellan/midrcd_query.html), even from here on Earth (http://www.nasm.edu/ceps/etp/venus/earthbased.html), but I don't think that's what they're talking about.

[Christopher Ferro]

Larger telescope models can occasionally show dusky markings on the surface of Venus.


They probably mean that the larger models allow some cloudtop brightness variations to be seen - they would appear comparativley "dusky".

CJSF


_________________
"Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never,
ever get it out."
--Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Christopher Ferro on 2001-12-07 12:08 ]</font>

[ToSeek]

On 2001-12-07 12:08, Christopher Ferro wrote:

They probably mean that the larger models allow some cloudtop brightness variations to be seen - they would appear comparativley "dusky".


I think he's complaining about the use of the term "surface" to refer to the top of the atmosphere.