# Things you can, surprisingly, see with the naked eye **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 18, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235 "2023-05-18T19:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2023, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/61 "2023-05-26T05:39:00Z")
I just watched a full 6 minute overhead pass. Amazingly bright in the fading twilight. We watched a satellite pass overhead while waiting for the Perseid meteor shower in 1980-something. Similar arc and speed, and feeling of wonder. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/62 "2023-05-27T14:56:33Z")
Cool! I’ve seen it many times in recent years and no longer check that website as often as I used to, but I still get a kick out of watching the ISS. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/63 "2023-05-27T21:42:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The coolest one was one in polar orbit going north to south c. 1976,. It was early night and I was in a sleeping bag looking for falling stars, as one does in such situations, when I noticed a “star” moving. It was moving too slowly to be a plane, etc. Around here, and indeed in most of the US and all of Europe, almost all of the satellites you’ll see from the ground will be in polar orbits. The cheapest orbits are those with an inclination the same as the latitude of the launch site, and so most satellites launched from Florida (or from even closer to the equator) will never pass over most of the US. Russian launches are an exception, because they value the security of an extremely north launch site over the economy of a tropical one. And the ISS is another exception, because it was put in a Russian-latitude orbit so both nations could reach it (it costs extra fuel to get into an inclination higher than your latitude, but it costs a LOT of extra fuel to get into an inclination lower than your latitude). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/64 "2023-05-29T00:28:26Z")
Not naked eye, but I’m posting it anydamnway. > **[Photographer Braves Desert Heat to Capture Rare Photo of Illuminated ISS](https://petapixel.com/2023/05/26/photographer-braves-desert-heat-to-capture-rare-photo-of-illuminated-iss/)** > > A photo like this takes a lot of planning. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/65 "2023-05-29T00:50:51Z")
Nice job to that photographer! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/66 "2023-05-29T13:10:57Z")
Wow! Thank you. It’s amazing what enough craftsmanship (read “compulsive perfectionism”) can achieve. Color me boggled. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/67 "2023-05-29T19:32:05Z")
Large specimens of paramecium (a unicellular ciliate) are naked-eye visible - it is possible to discern that they are oval in shape. It’s very weird (well, I think it is) that they can be bigger than multicellular animals such as rotifers and targidgrades. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/68 "2023-05-29T19:48:47Z")
Somewhere, once, I saw a photo of a relatively normal-looking arthropod, being engulfed by an amoeba. Alas, Google Images isn’t being helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/69 "2023-05-29T21:23:38Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > And Venus is visible during the day — altho I’ve never gone to the work to view it then. I used to walk four miles to my office. One morning in late October, still under DST, I left my house around 6:45 and Venus was bright and right in front of me. I kept in sight. The sun rose around 7:30 and it was still visible. I kept it in sight until well after 8, when it disappeared behind a building. When I came out from there, I briefly searched for it again but I was near enough to my office that it was not worth the effort. But yes, Venus is visible any time it is in the sky and not too near the sun. I think this was near maximal elongation. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2023, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/70 "2023-05-29T21:45:48Z")
Those with bad myopia can resolve objects at the microscopic level. For example, they can read currency microprint without magnification. Cite: me. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/71 "2023-05-30T02:12:38Z")
Venus is (or was recently) at maximum elongation, and is easily visible long after sunset. It should be visible before the sunset as well if you know where to look. Jupiter is sometimes the same way, in that you can see it long before sunset. (Or if they are morning stars, after sunrise.) It’s a game I sometimes play when I’m walking outside, seeing if Venus or Jupiter is where I expect them to be while it’s still daylight. I’m always surprised when I search and search, and then after finally finding the planet, realizing that I was looking at it for a long time without really seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/72 "2023-05-30T18:19:51Z")
In the “Close but no cigar.” department are the 4 big Galilean satellites of Jupiter. There are all bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the brightness of Jupiter overwhelms them. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/73 "2023-05-30T18:24:03Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > There are all bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the brightness of Jupiter overwhelms them [That calls for a StarShade](https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/1015/flower-power-nasa-reveals-spring-starshade-animation/). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235/74 "2023-05-30T19:51:21Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I’m always surprised when I search and search, and then after finally finding the planet, realizing that I was looking at it for a long time without really seeing it. Looking for an angularly small object in a blank field of sky is not something the human visual system was “designed” for. You have the pixels to do the job, but not the perceptual apparatus to detect the feature within the pixels. Once you do find what you’re looking for, suddenly it’s obvious and you wonder how you had a hard time finding it. Until it was seen you were looking for a clear needle in an featureless haystack. We fight this issue all the time in my job. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-can-surprisingly-see-with-the-naked-eye/984235.md?page=3)