A-L-E-X wrote:Source of the post Wow, I did not know you can see Venus at noon!
Absolutely. It can take a bit of effort to spot it, but once you do, it's usually very easy to find again.
The Moon and Venus are moving farther apart now, so it will get harder to find it in daylight until they're close together again. When I saw it they were about 3 degrees apart. I also knew where to look from the Moon because I had seen them together before the Sun came up.
A-L-E-X wrote:Source of the post I had heard some people ask if it's possible to see the brightest stars if you're deep down in a well but I don't think that's possible.
I have uncles who will swear it's possible to see stars in mid-day from the bottom of a chimney or well. I don't think I believe them. Intuitively I think the sky brightness prevents it, and you would also need to be pretty lucky to get a bright star in the field of view from the bottom of a chimney. Most of the sky does not contain very bright stars.
Looking into it further, I found quite a few sources that say it is impossible. This 1983 paper seems the most persuasive. But if anyone has tested this themselves, please report in!
Probably the best way to see stars during the day is when the Sun is blocked by the Moon. But even then I did not waste much time trying to do so since the stars proved much easier to see in actual night time.

Another fun bit of related history. Throughout the 1800s, astronomers tried very hard to view the Sun's corona from the ground without a total solar eclipse. Some were convinced that they were even succeeding at it, but most likely they were mistaken. It was not until the invention of the coronagraph in 1930 that it was finally achieved reliably.