Venus and Mercury in broad daylight near the zenith September 29, 2013 Uploaded 9/30/13  Here are a few shots taken in the daytime, with the two planets within 45 degrees of the Sun on a somewhat hazy summer day.    The setup consisted of my 12.5" scope with the front end extended by a huge light shield to block the direct sun from striking the inside of the tube and ruining contrast. 1290 x 960    Venus with the 2.5x Televue powermate and the DMK51 camera. This is an RGB color image taken through three colored filters and combined. Seeing was very poor. 1290 x 960  With the DSLR in broad daylight the planet Venus against the blue daytime sky at prime focus, 1500mm f/5. 1290 x 960    Mercury is there too, just to the right of center. You can see it better in this full screen image. 1290 x 960 Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian Platform: Astrophysics 1200 QMD CCD Camera: DMK51 DSLR: Hutech Modified Canon Xti Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing FMHW = 10 arcsec, Transparency 5/10 Outside Temperature: 75F Processing: Registax, Photoshop