Venus visible

[lennartsmit]

In these weeks Venus is visible in Holland but probably also in whole western-Europe. It's a very bright ''star'' in the south-western eveningsky (against 8 or 9 o'clock) Maybe someone can point a telescope to that?

 

[garyw]

It's been visible in the UK for about 2.5 months.... I wish I had a telescope!

 

[T.Neo]

Venus has been visible here in SA for about 2.5 months.
I've tried to point my 40x telescope at it but I just get a very, very bright star.
I've seen the moons of Jupiter with this telescope, and it shows Jupiter itself as a sphere, if you look clearly.

I think the problem is either Venus is just too bright, or that this telescope, (which is not really an astronomy telescope, more of a "binocular thingy")is not really up to the task.

 

[thomasantony]

Actually, its not so much as it is too bright. Its just that it maybe too small or too far away for your scope's aperture to resolve properly.

I have looked at Venus with my 6'' reflector ( last year I think ) and saw this half shaded disc, kinda like the moon looks when its waning.

 

[T.Neo]

Actually, its not so much as it is too bright. Its just that it maybe too small or too far away for your scope's aperture to resolve properly.

It sees Jupiter as a small disk, maybe that is because Jupiter is just very, very big. I'll see if I can have a look tonight.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Actually, its not so much as it is too bright. Its just that it maybe too small or too far away for your scope's aperture to resolve properly.

I have looked at Venus with my 6'' reflector ( last year I think ) and saw this half shaded disc, kinda like the moon looks when its waning.

I've looked at it with my telescope (4 or 5 inch I think) and I'm going to agree with those who say it's 'too bright'. It's brightness causes some 'artifacts' when looking at it. But I also don't think you'd ever be able to see much else. I think it's dense atmosphere should prevent you from seeing much and would reflect a lot of sunlight.

 

[T.Neo]

But I also don't think you'd ever be able to see much else. I think it's dense atmosphere should prevent you from seeing much and would reflect a lot of sunlight.

I wouldn't even think of seeing much. From Earth, it should look totally featureless.

 

[agentgonzo]

I wouldn't even think of seeing much. From Earth, it should look totally featureless.

Venus won't show any 'features' but you will see that it's 'fuzzy' because of the thick atmosphere. Though it's hard to distinguish this fuzzyness from being slightly out of focus.

It's lovely to see Venus as the cresent, exhibiting phases like the moon. I looked at it quite a few times over the last few months in my 8" SCT and it's really bright. If you have a moon filter, you can use this to dim it down - otherwise you can always step down the aperture of your telescope if you have an appropriate lens cap (my old 5" reflector had a lens cap with an optional small hole in it for this purpose, stepping it down to 2"). I took a couple of photos of it, but I'm still new at astrophotography, so they weren't great.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I just checked it out the other day and it seemed to be in a 'quarter' phase. (if it's not just my telescope doing this ) Pretty cool! I forgot that Mercury and Venus had phases.

 

[Messierhunter]

Venus won't show any 'features' but you will see that it's 'fuzzy' because of the thick atmosphere. Though it's hard to distinguish this fuzzyness from being slightly out of focus.

Is that really why I can't seem to get my image any sharper than this? I thought it was just due to stacking images from my SLR instead of a webcam. It's only 4 of the best images stacked (I tried it with more of the frames I took, but it seemed to do better when I was picky) - it was a very quick and dirty job night before last.

 

[agentgonzo]

Is that really why I can't seem to get my image any sharper than this? I thought it was just due to stacking images from my SLR instead of a webcam. It's only 4 of the best images stacked (I tried it with more of the frames I took, but it seemed to do better when I was picky) - it was a very quick and dirty job night before last.

Possibly. It could be the focus, or it could be the atmosphere.
http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/ is the forum I use for astronomy. They have a gallery section there, so I suggest you post your image there and ask. It's a cracking shot of Venus regardless! Good work. What scope did you use?

 

[Messierhunter]

It's a cracking shot of Venus regardless! Good work. What scope did you use?

Thanks! I used an 8" LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain. I might give it another go with a webcam based imager later and see if I get the same result. The quick and dirty way I did this shot was just begging for problems.

 

[agentgonzo]

Thanks! I used an 8" LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain. I might give it another go with a webcam based imager later and see if I get the same result. The quick and dirty way I did this shot was just begging for problems.

How did it look through the eyepiece? If it looked similar through the eyepiece and the stars were pin-sharp then it's probably the atmosphere and you can't get it any more focussed. Nice scope by the way. I wanted one of those, but couldn't afford it so had to go with a second hand 8" Celestron (Ultima 2000).

 

[Yoda]

Allright, Allright...........
By popular demand, here's a image of Venus I took last night from my observatory here in Colorado.

Equipment used: 10" LX90 with prime focus using Nikon D70.
Enjoy.

And here is one i took of the ISS flying over my home about a week ago.

 

[Nerull]

In these weeks Venus is visible in Holland but probably also in whole western-Europe. It's a very bright ''star'' in the south-western eveningsky (against 8 or 9 o'clock) Maybe someone can point a telescope to that?

The sky will always appear the same (well, not quite, but close enough) at a given hour and latitude anywhere on Earth. Venus is visible in the evening essentially everywhere, since it is close enough to equatorial that few places wouldn't be able to see it.

 

[agentgonzo]

I'm slowly getting better at astrophotography. Here's the best image that I've managed to get of Venus so far. It was getting fairly late in the evening and so Venus was quite low (and also over another house which didn't help the seeing at all). I'll try and get a better one in the coming week now that I know how to get better pictures out of my scope and camera.

Canon EOS 350D prime on a Ultima 2000 (8" SCT). 1/1000s

You can see the purple and red fringing from being low in the sky and also how much the phase has changed from the earlier photos in this thread

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Venus is clearly visible here in England, as an extremely bright point of light in the sky. It has been clearly visible since about November.

 

[saphira1949]

Thank you for the pics .
I have also seen Jupiter .. but long time ago =)
But it was a great experience ... for sure I had a telescope...

Have fun