Sun & Venus 15-16 March 2009 U.T.

The above sketch shows Venus at 0:55 16 March 2009 U.T. as it appeared in "Buttercup", a 60mm refractor, at 70x. The observation was made around sunset under fair seeing conditions through thin clouds. The planet's apparent diameter was quite large. Even at 28x the planet seemed large! North is up. Preceding (west) is to the left. Though a complete disk appears in the sketch, only the bright, thin crescent was visible.

The sun appears in the above sketch with clouds sihlouetted against the bright solar disk. The observation was made through thin clouds at 28x with a full-aperture, objective solar filter at 23:10 on 15 March 2009 U.T. The densest clouds were even visible against the background sky. Unfortunately they don't show up in the scanned image of the sketch. No sunspots were noticed. Limb darkening and clouds were all that was noticed on (or in front of ) the sun's disk. The solar filter was home-made using Baader Solar Filter material. Never look at the sun without proper eye protection!