Someone on the C-14 group posted this shot of Venus taken just a few hours before we viewed it at SPOC: http://www.astrophotodigitale.com/Venus_21MR09.htm The view of Venus through the "Andy" at SPOC was memorable. patrick On 23 Mar 2009, at 13:17, Chuck Hards wrote:
A couple of us tried seeing the crescent without optical aid from SPOC on Friday night, without success. I used a ND "moon" filter to reduce the glare but it was just beyond my limit with my glasses on.
Venus is passing quite a ways north of the ecliptic on this conjuction, so it's not as close to earth as it can be during superior conjunction. When it transits in a few years, then it will be as apparently large as possible. It will almost certainly be a clearly-discerned round dot on the sun when viewed with proper filtration.