Would Someone Check The Sky, Please?

[897tgigvib]

Or...

Do it the Neanderthal way using the modern human way as a general guide.



See, among all that is the general idea that Venus rises after the sun, and then sets after the sun. Also, earlier you said it is magnitude -4.3 which means it's brighter than anything near it.

So says the neanderthal method, after sunset, look in the direction of sunset for a really really bright starlike thing. Bingo! That'll either be Venus or JackB's time machine coming to pick him up! Probably Venus since the time machine thing is a figment.

There is also something real bright past the clouds after sunset toward the east. Only thing that one could be, since it is unknown, would be either Jupiter or a supernova, and since all the doomsday folks haven't been flooding the internet about it, and all the hucksters selling radiation proof water filters have not been all over the place, it's probably Jupiter.

'Sides, last I heard a week or so ago, Saturn was being a morning star, actually a morning planet, rising shortly before the sun.

Don't get me going on Mercury! Can't keep up with Mercury's mercurialness!!! One day here, next day there and all!

 

[digitS']

But Marshall, you were wondering about where to find it during daylight hours.

I think most anyone could find Venus right after sundown. Venus couldn't be much brighter!

I'm saying that if you can point at it with your finger, maybe you can find it while the sun is still shining. Even here, the sun would be bright at 2:35pm in a clear sky. Knowing where Venus is in that blue sky would just be a matter of timing, knowing due South, and having an idea of how high above the horizon.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh. In that case it's EXTRAPOLATION, and that takes at least 2 days.

Spot venus on evening one and watch where it sets in comparison to the sun.

Next evening before the sun sets, calculate using the back part of your neanderthal brain where Venus should be in relation to where the sun is.

Next day, do it even earlier in the day

Voila!

 

[digitS']

Here are the times for rise and set for "major solar system bodies and bright stars."

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/mrst.php

You have only to enter your location and it does give you the elevation of the path. That might take messing with a level and protractor and having a very steady hand. But, you can get Sirius.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Single digitS' here.

4f, 15mph wind, -14 wind chill at 4am.

No real frost seen on the trees and parked cars. That has all sublimated into the dry, cold air. I am happy to learn that it isn't gusting above 20mph as the WS had anticipated.

It should be okay for the horses and cows if they've got a wind break. Not providing one for them would be cruel. Of course, they need a full belly and all that means for staying warm.

Edit: As best as I can guess. Heather's home in western Montana, has double digits below zero but the wind is close to being calm. Our hourly forecast looks real good for wind! Checking MT just prompted me to look at that for here. The winds are pushing south and high pressure is building behind it. Looks like we may get an 1 or so of snow tomorrow.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

The hazardous weather warning says widespread snow will resume today.

I'm looking at a winter wonderland outside. 6 to 8 inches of snow. Branches down. One on the bathouse luckily did no damage.

More snow coming today.

30.3 a couple minutes ago.

 

[thistlebloom]

digitS' comment on a windbreak for livestock made me think of a situation a few miles from me.

These folk raise horses, really good looking quarter horses of obvious quality. They own a large, newish well maintained house with attached multi-car garage and a big detached shop. The horses paddocks are well laid out with nice tight wire and attention paid to feeders and water troughs.

However, there are zero shelters, not a stick of windbreak, no trees. Just bare flat pastures. In weather like this especially I wonder what those folks feel when they go out of their warm house to tend to the stock. It makes me shudder. Even wild horses will seek out natural windbreaks when they have the opportunity to escape the piercing cold.

They do have free access to hay, which is some comfort.

 

[digitS']

Well, I couldn't see Venus in the mid-afternoon sky !

Stood out there in the shade ~ bright, bright frigid day ~ for nearly 10 minutes . Bonzo thought something might have been "wrong" with me. The moon was real easy to see and I tried to check everything in that part of the sky - between the moon and (near) where the blinding sun is at the moment.

Lots of those moving shadows that are on the retina from aging eyes. Tried looking around them at anything stationary . . .

Well, there will be a bright Venus in the southwest at sunset!

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep, first try finding it right around sunset if your sky is clear.

ps, it might be handy to have a sharp eyed youngun looking too.

Once you can see it around sunset, try the next day a little earlier.

Remember to EXTRAPOLATE where it should be using the NATURAL CURVE of its travel through the sky, and not just straight up from where it was spotted the night before. (If you have a hard time visualizing a curve, try making the straight line visually, but aim the line a smidgen southward.)

Don't feel bad if you can't find it in daytime. We'uns have done kinda too many orbits around that big bright round thing in the daytime sky to be able to see with the ACUITY of a young'un.

(My eye doctors like to use that word acuity with each other along with all their other big words.)

 

[897tgigvib]

You can compare where your extrapolation estimate of where it is with your modern human method, and they ought to be close, and that'll narrow the search.