I have a Meade LX90 (goto) and want to view Venus in daytime. How do I set up the scope?

Set it up normally before dawn, then tell it to goto Venus. It's possible that Venus may be too close to the Sun to view safely, and the scope may tell you no, if you have that enabled. Setting it up in daylight to do it will more difficult since you won't have the guide stars to verify the positions. You can also set it up in Alt AZ mode and use a software program to get the alt az from your location and time. I did it that way with an ETX90 manual and a topographical map one morning. BTW, if you have a good idea where to look, you can see it naked eye as long as you get out of the glare from the Sun.

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Hum,
yes, Venus is too close to the sun, for safety.

Wait 30 days and it'll be higher in the evening sky.

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Well--I just did a daytime venus observation (technically), showing that the Bad Astronomer was correct in that it can be seen when the sun is up. I say "technically" as it was 5 minutes before sunset.

Using Sky and Telescope May issue, I found that Venus was about 40 degrees or so up, and I had a rough feel for the path of the sun, so I started there with binoculars, and started scanning, left and right, then changing altitude. I finally hit upon Venus, framed by tree branches. Lowering the binoculars and finding the same branches, I spotted it! If I looked away even a little, it was gone. It was white on the blue sky--not dim, but small, like a pinprick.

So--Venus is a good angular distance from the sun and is safe to view if you keep the scope away from the direction of the sun.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

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personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Jupiter is also visible to the naked-eye during the day at times if one knows precisely where to look. It is considerably more difficult to see than Venus, however.

When I was in Huatajata, Bolivia, in 2004, at an altitude of 12,500 feet, Venus was an extremely easy naked-eye daytime target at noon.

Dave Mitsky

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