Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer Wednesday 15th
January 1902
To the Editor of the Yorkshire Post.
Sir, Shakespeare’s ‘bright star of Venus’ forms so
conspicuous an object in the evening south western sky that one led to inquire
if she has been seen in the day time with the naked eye during her present
effulgence. Perhaps some local astronomer has observed her through the
atmosphere of ‘dim, laborious Leeds; Mr Whitemell, it may be.
To a great many people the fact that a star can be visible
at noon day at all must border on the incredible, bit Venus is not infrequently
detected, though ore by accident than by
design to the un astronomical.
The late Mr Edwin Dunkin, who for nearly half a century was
with the Royal Observatory at Greenwich wrote:- ‘ At the times of greatest
brilliance the light Venus is very intense. A sensible shadow is often thrown
upon a piece of white paper the interposition of the hand between it and Venus
when the planet is in this position in its orbit. It can almost be plainly
perceived by naked eye at such times in full sunlight, sometimes within an hour
of noon. At one of these epochs in 1868, a correspondent of the The Times
fancied that he had discovered a balloon shaped comet at noon day by means of a
small telescope. The stranger, however turned out to the the planet Venus,
which happened to be favourably situated for daylight observation in the spring
of that year.
Sir Robert Ball, too refers the subject in his ‘Story of the
Heavens’, thus:- ‘When Venus is at its brightest it easily can be seen in
broad daylight with the unaided eye. This striking spectacle proclaims in
unmistakeable manner the unrivalled supremacy of Venus compared with the other
planets and the fixed stars. Indeed, this time Venus is from 40 tom 60 times as
bright as the brightest star in the northern heavens’. But of course a desire
for star finding in the day time is to know where to look for your star.
J H Elgie
Leeds, January 14th
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
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