this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Trying to verify this. So far I found this but have not confirmed it's legit in any way:
Edit 1: Laundry, Shooting At Venus, and Surviving Two Back-To-Back Ship Sinkings Part 1 | archive.org
Edit 2: Laundry, Shooting At Venus, and Surviving Two Back-To-Back Ship Sinkings Part 1 | Vuink - Repost of article found in Edit 1.
Edit 3: USS Langley (CV-1) | World War II
Edit 4: This detailed history of the ship does not mention anything about firing at Venus:
Langley I (CV-1) | Naval History and Heritage Command
Found this article about it:
https://www.iflscience.com/the-us-navy-once-fired-300-rounds-at-an-aircraft-then-realized-it-was-venus-67500
Must have been lousy shots, Venus is still there. I heard Uranus is wrecked though
Dunno, we haven't been attacked by Venusians since have we?
It's the military so yeah
Maybe they shoulda used a hurricane as an assist. I heard shooting those works pretty well
I found a reference in Wikipedia (edit 3) so afaic my work here is done.
Edit 1: Oh fuck, it's a circular reference. Dammit.
Wait a minute, they shot at Venus around noon?
That makes no sense at all. Venus orbits closer to the Sun than Earth does. This means when looking at Venus we are always looking towards the Sun. For this reason Venus is very visible during sunrise or sunset (depending on the position of Venus), so the Sun is behind the horizon whilst Venus isn't. As soon as the Sun gets above the horizon it becomes much harder to see Venus, because the Sun is much brighter in the sky and Venus is near it. When Venus is far away from the Sun, as we see it in our sky, it's also a very pronounced crescent, so they wouldn't mistake it for a balloon.
This sounds like a story someone made up somewhere, but has now been repeated so many times it's hard to tell if it's real or not.
Maybe. But Venus is occasionally visible in the daytime, so it's plausible if that happened to be the case.
Nah that article is about Venus being in a weird position where you can both see it around sunset and sunrise, usually it's one or the other. Venus visible at noon is a no-go except in something like a solar eclipse or a high altitude balloon or something.
It is possible to spot Venus during the day, if it's further away from the Sun (as viewed from Earth). It is bright enough to be visible during the day (just like the Moon and even the ISS and Jupiter under the right conditions), but is usually very close to the sun so it's completely blown out. When it is further from the Sun, it's a very noticeable crescent shape. So I doubt anyone would mistake it for a balloon, especially someone who has the job of watching the skies for such things.
And come to thing of it, how large did they think it was and how accurate can they shoot at long range with a boat? Even if it was a balloon, you wouldn't attack it from range right? You would wait for it to come closer and hit it with anti aircraft shells. It's just a very weird story.
I'd imagine they would be using binoculars with sun filters during the day, allowing them to see venus despite the sun's glare.
It is, but I still think it's plausible given the tech at the time. But yeah, definitely suspicious, I'd like more details/confirmation.