The visibility of Venus

Abstract

Venus is the only planet or star that can be seen by the naked eye during the day. Following the method of Westheimer (1985) for representing a point source as a single pixel on a screen with a resolution of 120 pixels per degree, we can convert the magnitude of Venus and the sky luminance into a luminance contrast signal with a contrast of 1.43. Detection models calibrated to the Modelfest data predict that such a target is below threshold (Watson & Ahumada, 2005). Modifications are proposed to the models to keep Venus visible.

http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/personnel/al/papers/10osa/handout.pdf

Acknowledgments

Supported by NASA Space Human Factors Engineering and the U.S. Navy.