7 replies to this topic

[skysurfer]

Just curious. On 35000+ ft (10+ km) with an air pressure on only one quarter of sea level, the brightest stars (or planets like Jupiter) must be visible with the naked eye. I tried sometimes to see Capella when using Stellarium or Skysafari using the current coordinates of the plane in full flight. But I failed.

 

Obviously, the plane windows should be clear. And I confirmed it years ago (during night) when flying over Australia (south of Northern Territory), I could see the pole star Sigma Oct with the naked eye.

But in daytime ? Did anyone see one of Jupiter, Sirius, Canopus, Capella or Vega with the naked eye from a plane with the naked eye ?

 

[bengreen]

Ex-airline pilot: nope, don't remember ever seeing stars in daytime. But then I was looking out through a thick sandwich of glass, heating layer, acrylic,heating layer and glass. If I remember right, pax windows were acrylic.

 

My daydream job was to fly SOFIA, a 747sp carrying a 100" cassegrain-ish scope. They apparently had the same idea you did but flew even higher and did without the windows. That compartment is open to the atmosphere. Gotta wonder what the cooling time is when the outside air temp is -55⁰C.

 

 

 

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[andycknight]

Don't know about from an aeroplane, but I've looked at the Planets many times during the day using my C8.

Although it's all but impossible to find them naked eye in a bright sky... Once you do (I used setting circles and to get there) Jupiter, Venus and Mars etc... can be seen by the naked eye.

 

Obviously it needs to be a clear day with a deep blue sky and the planets need to be a good distance away from the Sun. But sighting along the telescope tube, they can be seen. It becomes easier if you attach a long cardboard tube to the telescope and look through that, as it helps you focus in the correct area and blocks out most of the dazzling sky.

 

Never tried Sirrus though...

 

Regards

 

Andy.

Edited by andycknight, 08 February 2025 - 07:06 AM.

[matt_astro_tx]

I know there's one star that's always visible during the day from an airplane at FL350...

[A Star Geezer]

Last time I was in a plane I saw the star

[Xilman]

Don't know about from an aeroplane, but I've looked at the Planets many times during the day using my C8.

Although it's all but impossible to find them naked eye in a bright sky... Once you do (I used setting circles and to get there) Jupiter, Venus and Mars etc... can be seen by the naked eye.

 

Obviously it needs to be a clear day with a deep blue sky and the planets need to be a good distance away from the Sun. But sighting along the telescope tube, they can be seen. It becomes easier if you attach a long cardboard tube to the telescope and look through that, as it helps you focus in the correct area and blocks out most of the dazzling sky.

Stars are easy to image and to see visually in the daytime through a telescope but I have never seen one (other than the obvious) with the naked eye.

 

One of my more idiotic projects is to see how many Messier objects I can image in daylight. So far only (part of) M45 has been successful but that has shown the limiting magnitude is below 9th magnitude.

 

See https://www.cloudyni...cts-by-daylight
 

[Tapio]

Globular and open clusters could be possible in daytime, maybe some galaxies too, I believe.
But not nebulae I think.

[tfield98]

My daydream job was to fly SOFIA, 

 

I, too, dreamt of being on SOFIA.  But, alas, the closest I ever got was that they printed our Periodic Table of Spectra on metal and mounted it in the control room.  

Here's an image that shows the poster on the wall and a bit of the control room with the telescope in the background: www.rspec-astro.com/news/#sofia.