[Junior]

You're not getting the picture, are you? The readings from the probes did not contradict the readings by telescope, did they? And, since albedo is a measure of the amount of light reflected by a body it doesn't really matter where the viewer is stationed to make the readings, does it? I don't have to be 5" from the Sun to know accurately how much light it gives off; neither do you need to be in orbit around Venus to measure the amount of light it reflects.

[RightWhale]

This thread ought to be over on the short bus forum. In fact all interesting threads ought to be over there so I don't have wear out my mouse clicker trying to keep up.

[RadioAstronomer]

When I was at JPL, I used to work with a prominent planetary geologist. We would get into discussions prior to the Magellan spacecraft data about the mechanisms of the thermodynamic morphology of the Venusian surface. It had beed postulated that continental drift could be the mechanism on Venus like it is here on Earth. After the Magellan radar data was analyzed, continental drift on Venus was demonstrated not be the case. It is now theorized that entire regions of the landmass would subduct all at once.