Everyone knows that we've sent autonomous probes to the Moon and Mars many times, to Mercury a few times, to the outer planets quite a lot. But we hardly ever hear anyone talk about Venus. Maybe you know that the Russians went there a few times, or remember Pioneer Venus and Magellan. But do you know there have been 21 successful missions to Venus and nearly twice that many attempts? In this presentation, Jonathan will talk about missions successful and unsuccessful, and speculate about why we don't pay more attention to our sister planet.
Telescope observing afterward, weather permiting.