Line through centre of Venus

[LisaY]

Hi there,

I was given a Celestron 70 travel scope outfit for my birthday. It's been really cloudy here recently and last night was the first night we had a clear view of Venus.

We used 20mm, 10mm & 4mm lenses and discovered Venus to have a line straight through the middle. It looked almost like the lens was cracked or had a hair on it but we've checked it and it seems fine. We've also looked at our blossom tree at the bottom of our garden in daylight and no line appears.

Am I being really silly or is there a reason for this?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[freeflyjay]

venus is closer to the sun than us so shows phases like the moon are you sure your not just seeing that?

[jflowers]

As freeflyjay says, venus has phases and looks like this at the moment...

[LisaY]

Wondering if it was Venus we were looking at now as it looked more like a circle with a perfectly straight line through it. Thanks anyway

[Tribal-Wolf]

Hard to miss venus as it will be the brightest 'star' in the sky right now

[Cubemaster]

Wondering if it was Venus we were looking at now as it looked more like a circle with a perfectly straight line through it. Thanks anyway

Could it have been Saturn?

[brantuk]

Looking at the sun the other day my other half noticed a line going through it and started sweeping her hair back and asking if there was an eyelash on the lens. Turns out it was an overhead telephone line lol.

Sounds daft but quite realistic and they're harder to spot at night - might be worth checking if you have any lines in that direction

[FOX]

Hi there,

I was given a Celestron 70 travel scope outfit for my birthday. It's been really cloudy here recently and last night was the first night we had a clear view of Venus.

We used 20mm, 10mm & 4mm lenses and discovered Venus to have a line straight through the middle. It looked almost like the lens was cracked or had a hair on it but we've checked it and it seems fine. We've also looked at our blossom tree at the bottom of our garden in daylight and no line appears.

Am I being really silly or is there a reason for this?

Thanks for any help you can give.

i see the same thing every single night, i must be looking at something else because everyone says it has phases like the moon but its full every night for the past two months and i see a perfectly straight line through the center of it. but when i view the moon or anything else no line. WTF!!!!!!!