http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/m...hreadid=307586

Why don't observatories do this more often? People are often amazed to see Venus in broad daylight.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kiwi on 2002-12-04 08:04 ]</font>

Surprisingly many people are even amazed to see the Moon in broad daylight. No joke.

Harald

And people are even more amazed NOT to see the moon at night.

__________________
Up the Imps!

I was teaching physics, the optics section. I took my telescope in and decided to show the students the Moon. THREE students in one class did not know you could see the Moon during the day! These were juniors and seniors at a college prep school!

Rob

One of my friends who is a true party animal was, until recently, totally convinced that the moon was "always" directly overhead at midnight "every" night. Even to the point of getting angry with me and putting me down for my lack of basic knowlege that everyone except me was absolutely sure of.

It took me about three months to educate her. Everytime we were together and the moon was visible I would simple point out the moon and say "oh look, doesn't the moon look beautiful when it is just setting at 7 o'clock at night." or "oh look, doesn't the moon look beautiful when it is just rising at 10 o'clock in the morning." I knew that she had finally gotten the message when she started to get ****ed at me for even mentioning the moon.

Sometime during the three months i got my hands on a chart of where the moon is at various times, and together we learned that the moon is always at or near zenith when it is full. Which is probably the only time my bleary eyed friend had ever seen the moon before I came along. The whole process was a real hoot for me.

The link in the first post probably won't work much longer, as it's on a bulletin board where threads are only kept for a few days after the last posting.

Briefly, I described how people could view Venus next to the Moon around 10:40am last Sunday and Monday, 1 & 2 December. There were about three enthusiastic replies.

I often wonder why observatories don't issue press releases about such things, including the most favourable views of the ISS.

Regarding the last few posts here, it can be interesting to ask people how much of their hands, held at arm's length, it takes to cover the full moon. Most answers I've had vary between one palm and two full handspans. The correct answer, half a finger-width, is usually met with disbelief.

Mind you, I took up photography in 1971, and for about 15 years I wondered why books written in the northern hemisphere said you could find nice, soft light coming through a north-facing window. "The clowns," I thought, "Those are the windows the sun streams through. Perhaps they have more overcast skies up there than we do."