If you have never seen Venus in a daytime sky, Sunday morning offers a good opportunity. If it is clear where you live, go out about about a half hour before sunrise and find the waning crescent moon with Venus nearby in the eastern sky. This is good for all of us in the Northern Hemisphere. And for Euopean observers, the moon and Venus will be closer before dawn than they will be for North American observers.
(Note that in our graphic, courtesy of Starry Night software, the moon is several times larger than it appears to the human eye.)
If it is dark enough when you first start to observe, you may also catch Saturn and the star Regulus, which are nearby. Their exact orientation relative to the moon depends on your exact geographic location and the exact time, but you can tell them apart because Saturn has a relatively steady white or yellowish glow, and Regulus is bluish and is likely to flicker or twinkle. (See Kelley Knight’s Tonight’s Sky entry for Saturday.) Venus, much brighter than either Saturn or Regulus, will be a brilliant — even startlingly white — light, slightly above and to the right of the moon.
Now, if you observe these before sunrise, you can follow them through the coming of sun and actually see Venus in broad daylight! How neat is that!
Although Saturn and Regulus, along with all other stars and planets (except Mars and Jupiter on rare occasions — more about that later!) will be lost long before full light, Venus can be seen often in daylight (I observed it about an hour after sunrise the Wednesday morning, without the moon nearby), but the presence of a nearby “landmark” such as the moon helps tremendously.
If you miss this on Sunday morning, the moon will be considerably farther away from Venus on Monday, but Venus will be as bright, and with a little effort, you can still find it. I suggest that you use software, such as Starry Night, TheSky or others (including the freeware Stargaze to find the exact position of Venus in the sky from your location and your time.
So, OK, you can see Venus in the daylight. Can any of you get a photo? Let me know and maybe I will post it.
Larry S.
Update: Here is a photo taken by CeCe R. with a cell phone before dawn on October 7. Pretty cool, huh? 
Hi Larry,
I hope its clear tomorrow. I’ve seen Venus several times in mid afternoon (usually in te summer). Many people thought it was a UFO because it stayed in the same spot for a long time. Those with me at the time were able to see the crescent once I trained a 3 inch Bosh & Lomb Bal-Scope Sr. (refractor) on it.
Its fun to catch it in the daylight.
Ted Gregg
Astronomy Instructor (retired)
How wonderful it was to see it. It made me think immediately of the Islamic flag–with the end of Ramadan approaching, it all began to make sense. While I am not a Muslim, I am a science teacher and I couldn’t help but think if I had known that the night sky (early morning sky, it was 5:15am from my observation point) would be so magnificent, I would have told my kids to get pictures for extra credit!
Joy
Earth/Physical science Teacher
Philadelphia
Hi, Ted. I hope things are going a little better for you. I just saw the Moon and Venus, at about 8 o’clock, while out walking the dogs. It was quite easy, just patchy cloudiness here in SE Denver, so I suspect it is pretty good down your way.
Larry
Hi, Joy. The Moslim astronomers of the Middle Ages were wonderful observers, being blessed with largely clear and dark desert skies. In fact, many of the star names we have today — including the famed Betelgeuse in Orion — are Arabic. (”Arabic” and “Moslim” are not synonymous, but the two typically go hand in hand.) Funny thing those, is that whoever came up with the Crescent Moon and star emblem — at least the way it is normally depicted — was not familiar with the sky because it depicts an impossibility. In most depictions, the star is in front of the Moon, as if it were closer to us than the Moon. this, of course is utterly impossible and can never be viewed as such in the sky.
Larry S.
I took a picture of Venus and the moon that morning from my cell phone. I had no idea what the hell it was until i read your blog. I thought it was a UFO which didn’t help because i was out all night drinking for my birthday…..hahahaha. let me know if you want a peek.
CeCe
Hi, CeCe.
Frankly, I’d be surprised if you got much on a cell phone camera, but I’d like to see it if you did!
Larry S.
MERCURY
According to a book on the heavens, including planets, there was supposed to be an apparition of Mercury in the evening sky sometime around the end of Sept to the beginning of Oct. (2007). I looked evening after evening during this period but was not able to see Mercury. Was the book wrong, was it just a poor time because Mercury was just not in a good position for viewing from the Dallas area (I do live in an area away from city lights). The next apparition according to the same book will be in the morning sky in November. Is this sound information?
Thanks,
George
If you have really been watching, it has been visible all day long for the last month and a half. Go outside any time of the day and look for it if it’s clear.
ROD
George,
Mercury was there as scheduled, but it is just flat out hard to see most of the time because it is always so close to the Sun in the sky. Also, even at its best, it isn’t even remotely as bright as Venus. But keep looking because you will eventually see it. The Dallas area is fine, but you do need a location that has good horizons to the east and west, because Mercury is always low. The apparition in November is in the morning sky. The next good time in the evening sky will be about the third week of January.
Larry Sessions,
Denver
Well, Rod, I have been watching, time and again for at least 35 years. True, if you have good conditions and good eyesight, you can find Venus at some time during most of the daylight hours on, I would guess, probably 250 days of the year, maybe more. But you have to know exactly where to look, which is not always that easy in a daytime sky if you don’t have some “landmark” or established technique. Once you do find it, it often seems amazing how you could have missed it before. The days on which you can’t observe it are when it is just appears too close to the Sun and is lost in the glare, or it is too low in the sky.
Larry Sessions
hi larry,
i am currently working on a project that states: At approximately weekly intervals, sketch the position of Venus, Mars or Jupiter in relation to the stars.
Now i am a little confused on how i could do this. so i was wondering if you could help me. is it possible for me to find any of these planets without a telescope or a very powerful set of binaculors?
Jordan, right now all three planets are i the early evening sky, but Mars and especially Venus are simply too close to the sun to be seen easily. Jupiter, on the other hand, is very easy to see. Just go out about an hour after the sun goes down where you live, and look to the southeastern sky. Jupiter is the brightest object out there. On August 8, the Moon will be very close to it, but you don’t have to wait for that. From a dark location, just make a simple drawing of where you see Jupiter in relation to the stars around it. You need to make the drawing as accurately as you can. Maybe you could draw Jupiter and the other stars around it with varying sizes to suggest different brightnesses. I can tell you right now and Jupiter is the brightest, so the stars around it will appear smaller. Right now Jupiter is near the constellation Sagittarius and the stars are much faniter than Jupiter, but you should be able to detect a particular pattern.
A week after you make the first drawing, make a second of the same area of the sky with Jupiter in it, then again on the third week and so on. You should be able to make them all at about the same time, or at least in the early evening. Then compare where Jupiter is in all the drawings. Of course this all changes with time, which is pretty much what you want to notice — so if you start now you should be able to finish this in about a month. Truth be told, Jupiter does not move very fast, so you need to be careful and make your drawings as accurate as possible. With just your eyes it isn’t real easy to get all the angles and such exactly right , but if you try you should be able to do so. If you go here: http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=440, it will give you a simple chart that you can compare with Sagittarius in the sky. The chart is the area of sky around Sagittarius, without Jupiter. Perhaps you could print this out and then plot Jupiter on it each week so you don’t actually have to plot the stars.
Good luck.