We've had nothing but clouds for the last week, so I've not been able to do any observing. Yesterday, I took off work early (because I wanted to, and they owed me some time) and while standing in my driveway around 3 PM waiting for the mail, I was following a plane in the sky when I saw a bright spot near the plane.

It was easy to keep in view as it was just above the top of a tree in the yard to the south of mine. After several minutes (and looking at the angle to the sun) I figured it was Venus. Now I'm sure many of you here have seen Venus during the day (as have I), but it was the closest to midday that I have seen it.

My wife came out to find out why I was taking so long with the mail and I pointed it out to her. She was like, "Yeah, so?, (having seen it during the day before, but she did stay to look). My neighbor from across the street came over and wanted to know what we were looking at. I explained and he was able to see it also. Then two kids coming home from school stopped by to find out what was going on and they stood there looking at Venus also (one of them ran home and his father came over to look too)

All of them(with the exception of my wife) had no idea that you could see Venus during the day. I explained to them that you can, if you know exactly where to look (and that tree as a reference made it fairly easy )When I do observing from my house, I generally set it up in the driveway and give impromptu star parties for whoever comes over. But this is the first time I've had people over looking, with nake eye, during the day.

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Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend,... - Moody Blues.

Neptune- The original Dark Matter.

The author feels that this technique of deliberately lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. - Donald Knuth

In Robert Sheaffer's book "Ufo Sightings: The Evidence" he prints a picture of Venus taken around midday (in a discussion about how often Venus is mistaken for a UFO).

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"If lightspeed has something to do with speed.
how come things can move fast in the dark?"
-James Driscoll (Spaceman), kook, imbecile, idiot.

Sometimes naked-eye stuff like that is more remarkable to me than telescope images. I've seen Venus at around 4:00pm in late winter. I remember watching two dots in the sky, one following the other. It was amazing knowing that one was a shuttle and the other was the ISS.