From Venus, Could you resolve Earths Moon?

[bad_drawing]

I don't know why this intrigues me, but if one was in orbit around Venus, could they resolve Earth and Moon as two seperate objects with the naked eye? (assuming 20/20 vision) Or would they appear as one bright spot that would require a telescope to resolve as seperate? (for sake of the question lets say the Moon is at maximum elongation relative to Earth from the perspective of Venus. Lets also say that Earth is at opposition relative to Venus).<br /><br />

 

[tfwthom]

You could see them <br /><br />Nice little program from JPL<br /><br /> Solar System Simulator <br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[thalion]

Yes--and easily, too.

 

[bad_drawing]

Very cool. Thanks for the link to that program and the input, guys!

 

[nexium]

With good vision, you would also see Earth's moon as a separate object observing from Mercury, from the Moons of Mars, from Mars and from millions of asteroids, part of most years. Neil

 

[willpittenger]

How about this: We reach Pluto and look back. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[BReif]

How about a transit of Earth and Moon across the sun as viewed from Mars? I think there is one in 2012.

 

[qso1]

One of the Voyager probes looked back from about a third that distance and saw the Earth as the pale blue dot Carl Sagan called it. That's actually where he got that analogy if I remember right.<br /><br />From Pluto, it would be difficult to see Earth as it would always be close to the Sun. A telescope or high powered binocs would be needed to resolve Earth and the moon. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Voyager was well past Neptune. You are talking about the last Voyager pictures ever taken. The Moon did not show up at all. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[vogon13]

According to Carl Sagan, the moon was just barely resolved in the picture set.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[qso1]

I do not recall seeing the moon at all but maybe it was there...just barely. I'll have to find that image and take another look. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[tropicalzone]

one big problem you have 100 miles of clouds to deal with

 

[vogon13]

If not for the glare of Jupiter, the Galilean satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) would be visible to someone with normal vision.<br /><br />Just barely possible someone could discern Callisto from earth at opposition with feasibly excellent eyesight.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[silylene old]

Interesting discussion of naked eye observation of Jupiter's larger satellites: http://denisdutton.com/jupiter_moons.htm<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>If it were not for their proximity to Jupiter, all the Galilean satellites would be visible to the naked eye. Their visual magnitudes when Jupiter is at mean opposition are I, Io, 4.8; II, Europa, 5.2; III, Ganymede, 4.5; and IV, Callisto, S.S. In mid-December of this year, Jupiter will be slightly closer to the earth and sun than at mean opposition, and the satellites will be 0.1 magnitude brighter than given above. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> <br /><br />And a Royal Astronomical Observatory journal paper making a strong claim for such observation: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0034//0000309.000.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[3488]

Hi all.<br /><br />Yes Earth's moon would be very clearly visible from Venus. At opposition the Earth would be nearly magnitude -6.3 & the moon would be a very conspicuous +1.6, almost first magnitude (about the same as Elnath / Beta Tauri). The moon at maximum elongation from Earth would be about 20 minutes of arc away or about one third of a degree, so would be very clearly visible next to the Earth. <br /><br />The Earth would cast shadows.<br /><br />Thanks silylene. From the United Kingdom & Jupiter's low elevation from this far north, the observation will be difficult. <br /><br />IIRC will Jupiter be coming out of conjunction with the sun in the predawn sky this December???<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[bad_drawing]

So if my understanding is correct, at maximum elongation the distance between the earth and moon (as observed from Venus...above the cloud deck) would be comparable to the width of the full moon as observed from the surface of the Earth. That would be quite a sight! It's interesting to imagine that if Venus or Mars had such a substantial satellite located in a similar orbit, we would have likely gotten to the heliocentric solar system model much sooner. <br /><br />On Callisto at maximum elongation, I wonder how that would compare to the old Mizar companion vision test. I'd imagine much harder. One way to find out.<br />