Few sights are more beautiful than the crescent Venus against a deep blue sky.  If you wait till sunset to view the planet, the view is usually marred by atmospheric turbulence, and the planet's brightness makes it difficult to observe.  Venus is quite visible to the naked eye in the daylight hours.  The key is knowing exactly where to look.  The crescent is visible even in 7x35 binoculars.

This method makes use of the fact that, for most of December 2005, Venus transits the meridian, or the north-south line in the sky, slightly higher than the sun.  You simply create a way to mark the position of the sun when it transits, then come back later and look just above that spot for Venus.  You do this in a way that never requires you to look at the sun.  This is important - you should never look directly at the sun, either with the naked eye or especially with any type of optical instrument - you can quickly do permanent damage to your eyes, including blindness.  Never point your binoculars anywhere near the sun.

With this method of finding Venus, you simply need a vertical pole that is standing on a relatively flat surface.  Your observing area must allow you an unobstructed view of the southern sky approximately 25 degrees above the horizon.  If there is no power pole or light pole that meets these requirements, you can simply buy a piece of metal electrical conduit tubing from a home supply place like Home Depot.  I bought two pieces of tubing, one 3/4 diameter by 10 feet, and one 1/2" diameter by 10 feet.  I also bought a tube cutter to cut them into sizes that would fit into my vehicle.  The two tubes cost a total of $7.56, and the tube cutter (you may already have one, or may get the Home Depot people to cut them down for you) cost $8.95.  I used a portion of the smaller tube to stick into the ground (I increased its diameter with duct tape in a couple of places to allow it to slide inside the larger tube with no play) and then slid the larger tube over it.  However, any pole will do, so long as you install it vertical to the ground.  The top of mine stands about 87 inches from the ground.  If you get the pole too short, your pointing accuracy will suffer.

Take your pole outside on any sunny December day from the 10th onward. Ideally, you would find a spot where you could leave it the rest of the month.  The time of day that you do this should be 20 minutes or so before the sun transit time for that date (refer to the chart below).  Find a place where the sun clears trees and other obstacles on the southern horizon (use your hand to shield your eyes from the sun).  Use a level to make sure the pole is vertical. 

At the exact time the sun transits (from the chart), mark the tip of the pole's shadow on the ground by placing a small stake in the ground.  Make the stake flush with the ground.  To make the tip of the shadow more visible, you may want to lay a sheet of white paper on the ground at the shadow tip.  It is important that you mark the tip of the sun's shadow at the exact time shown in the chart, and that you look for Venus at the exact time shown.  The earth's rotation will change the alignment quicker than you might expect.  That's all there is to it.  You can now relax until the time of day that Venus will transit (refer again to the chart).  If you leave the pole in the ground, you will not have to do any more setup on other dates.

 At the time shown for Venus transit, place one eye just above the stake that marked the tip of the shadow (your eye will be just above the ground) and look for Venus just over the tip of the pole.  I recommend starting to look for Venus about 5 minutes before transit.  It should be just to the east (left as you are facing south) of the tip of the pole.  At the "Venus Transits" time, it should be right above the top of the pole.* 

If you don't see Venus right away, don't despair.  You have to be looking right at it to see it, and it takes most people a few minutes to spot it the tiny point of light.  Once you see it you can keep your eye on it and slowly stand up to get a binocular or spotting scope view. 

Once you have spotted Venus, you can also walk towards your pole while keeping your eye on Venus.  When Venus appears just above the pole while you are standing, you can mark the position where you are standing as your reference point.  That way you will no longer need to crouch down close to ground to sight it. 

As the month progresses Venus will appear slightly higher each day above the tip of the pole at the time of transit.  The "Relative Elevation" column in the chart shows how many degrees Venus will appear above the tip of your pole.  Your thumb at arm's length subtends about 3 degrees and your fist at arm's length about 10 degrees.  As you come to the end of December you will be treated to a large, beautiful crescent.

*The times in the chart are for the Nashville/Franklin/Murfreesboro area of Tennessee.  As you move away from this area, they will be less accurate.  If you want to refine the transit times for your area, you can look up your local sunrise and sunset times (either from your local paper or from a GPS unit) for the day that you wish to observe.  Take the difference in time between sunrise and sunset, divide it by two, and then add the result to the sunrise time.  This will be your local sun transit time.  Note the difference between your new local sun transit time and the time shown on the chart, and then apply this same correction to the Venus transit time.

To go to a printable version of the chart, click here.