Venus 3-28-15

[WCGucfa]

Cool first images, Ron!
You're going to have a lot of fun with that new Canon!!

Bill G.

[WCGucfa]

Great idea getting the Bull by the horns, Mike.
Great job!

Bill G.

[Bruce D]

Nice shots Bill, this is going to be a tough competition- I hosie NOT being named a judge!

[WCGucfa]

Thanks, Bruce,

I'm not in the competition; just throwing in Venus memorabilia for fillers.
It would be a hoot to be a judge though!

filler: I once was convinced I saw the famous "Ashen Light" of Venus. Reading of it always fascinated me since I was a kid.
What was that mysterious point of light rising from the clouds covering the Godess of Love in my 3'' reflector?

Oops! After proclaiming my discovery, my mentors of the time, back in 62' gave me a lesson on the tricks and trials of, lens flare!!

By the way, that conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on the 30th of June that Don mentioned WILL be spectacular. At 9:00 DST, they will be only 19' 42" apart!!
Before this, on June 20th, there will be a beautiful close conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus! How lucky can we get?! I've cancelled clouds for those nights!
Bill G.

[AndyG]

very nice Mike

[mrgizmo65]

Nothing wrong with that shot Mike, I wish I had the ambition to give it a try. Right now I'm running out of money and I'm running out of time, I wonder which will run out first??

[Apollo XX]

Perhaps we can have a telescopic Venus shootout!

Bill G.

Let's do it! From now until inferior conjunction. Key dates; June 6, Greatest Eastern Elongation, August 15, Inferior Conjunction. Categories; Best Nightscape/Dayscape Capture, Best Night Shot - Planet Only, Best Day Shot - Planet Only, Best Conjunction - Sky Objects Only, Thinnest Crescent Captured, Best Rendering of the Atmosphere. Submittal Criteria; Equipment Used, Exposure Data, Date, Time, Phase, Apparent Diameter, Magnitude. All submittals to this thread. Maximum size 1024x768. Judging TBD.

I know nightscape/dayscape isn't usually telescopic, but Venus is just too pretty to leave that out of the mix. Who wants to play?

UPDATE: A KEY DATE in this apparition has just passed. Yesterday (June 6) Venus was at greatest eastern elongation. Of course what this means is that we'll now start entering the stunningly beautiful waning crescent phases until inferior conjunction. This particular apparition is outstanding in that Venus is really far from the sun, and when I shot it today it was over 45* east of ol' Sol. We should have plenty of chances to capture the pretty lady in all her glory over the next couple of months. Here's a start;



Equipment: 4.5" Newt/Dob - 25mm/3xBarlow - Kodak Z885 - F2.8 - 1/500 - ISO200

[AndyG]

Nice one Mike, it can't be easy to get such a sharp image with the magnification cranked up like that!

[Bruce D]

Andy you echoed my thoughts, I was wondering how Mike kept the image from over-exposing

[Apollo XX]

Andy you echoed my thoughts, I was wondering how Mike kept the image from over-exposing

One major factor - shooting in broad daylight. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, almost four hours before sunset. The bright blue atmosphere seems to temper the wildness that we usually see if we look at Venus in the evening. Anyway, that's what I think it is. I look, I point, I shoot, and shoot, and shoot. At 1/500 of a second you tend to get lucky more often than not in stopping any aberrations of seeing. The presentation is a 100% crop of the original frame.