147 replies to this topic

[bob kelly]

Venus, cropped from larger frame.

1/1600 at f7.1 and ISO 200 with a Canon Rebel XS with a 55-250mm lens at 250mm.

About 45 minutes before sunset.

Found Venus using binoculars and Stellarium. Friday, March 7th.

Ardsley, NY

Edited by bob kelly, 08 March 2025 - 11:29 AM.

[N-1]

These days, Venus is clearly visible as a crescent in the daytime sky through my Dob's 8x50 finder. Very neat.

[RMay]

This morning’s capture, taken at 9:58am pacific time.

 

Ron

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[RMay]

Today’s grab was just a bit tougher than yesterday. Things may get even more interesting after March 11…

 

Ron

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[N-1]

The view on March 12 won't be much different from March 11, and with the upcoming conjunction (March 22) being almost as wide as it gets at 8.4° and to the north, i.e. 'above' the Sun for Northern-Hemisphere observers (making the Sun easy to block with an object), Venus will remain observable by reasonably skilled observers during the daytime throughout its conjunction with the Sun. Not only that, it may even be possible to see it both during evening and morning twilight (with the Sun below the horizon) on the same day around conjunction. Again this will require some skill and planning. These days 'unobservable' (by most) is probably limited to elongations significantly below 1°, and to times of day when it's simply too low in the sky. 

[Dave Mitsky]

Venus was 55.0 arc seconds in angular diameter and was illuminated just 6.8% this evening at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

[PKDfan]

I was out for a few frigid minutes catching Venus and a brief look at the moon.

Poor seeing but Venus didn't look appreciably different than several days ago only the angle of it cresent sickle shape is more balanced now and still high off the horizon here in Edmonton.



CSS
Lance

[RMay]

Here’s a recent look from 38° north through a pretty thick cloud layer, which actually filtered out a lot of the glare.

 

Ron

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[RMay]

And the cloud layer mask…

 

Ron

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[RMay]

Here’s a look at Venus, captured at 11:30am this morning under somewhat hazy skies as we await six days of rain, starting tomorrow…

 

Ron

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Edited by RMay, 11 March 2025 - 02:05 PM.

[PKDfan]

I had a couple minutes in between clouds with a very thin Venus with the B&L spotter and was amazed to see that at 48X there was zero chromatic aberration with it now much reduced in brightness.

Also she has hardly moved from its location in the last week plus here in Edmonton.



CSS
Lance

Edited by PKDfan, 11 March 2025 - 08:58 PM.

[Special Ed]

I've been enjoying the pics and reports here.  Weather has been rough for astronomy at my location, so I grabbed at the chance to look at Venus yesterday, even though the seeing was poor.

 

I took these snapshots with my Samsung A53 smartphone and my Celestron smartphone holder through my C14 and 17mm Vixen ep at 230x.  

 

I made these pics at about 5:30 pm EDT when our sister planet was at 40 degrees altitude.  Venus was 19 degrees separation from the Sun but I did not want to take any chances, so I kept the cover on the objective of the scope and the caps on the finder when I initiated the goto.  After the goto, I cautiously took the caps off of the finderscope and put my hand up to the ep to see if I felt any heat, but all was OK.  Venus appeared as a very tiny, bright, thin crescent in the 9x50 finder.  [ If I seem overly cautious, it's because you can't be too careful with a telescope around the Sun] 

 

Visually, it was hard to bring the planet into focus at higher magnifications.  At lower magnifications of 156x, the cusps appeared to extend just a bit past the centerline, and I fancied I could vaguely see the shaded part of the globe, but I know this was an illusion.  At 230x, the illusion vanished.  

 

With the seeing so turbulent, I didn't think I'd be able to get a decent shot, but by waiting for some relatively stable air I was able to get something passable.  These are 1/1500 sec, f/1.8, ISO160.  The second one uses the phone's 2x digital zoom.

 

 

[RMay]

I took these snapshots with my Samsung A53 smartphone and my Celestron smartphone holder through my C14 and 17mm Vixen ep at 230x.

With the seeing so turbulent, I didn't think I'd be able to get a decent shot, but by waiting for some relatively stable air I was able to get something passable. These are 1/1500 sec, f/1.8, ISO160. The second one uses the phone's 2x digital zoom.

Venus_2025.03.11.jpg

Venus_2025.03.11_2x.jpg

Beautiful shots. This may also be an issue of perception, but I was convinced that the planet’s crescent was thinner in the eyepiece than it was in the images that I took.

Did you experience that as well?

Again, nicely done!

Ron

[Special Ed]

Thanks, Ron.  The seeing was so poor for me yesterday that I never got a crisp view--even though I have a feather touch focuser with an 11:1 fine tune knob.  It wouldn't surprise me if the crescent is thinner in good seeing than it appears in images.

[RMay]

Thanks, Ron. The seeing was so poor for me yesterday that I never got a crisp view--even though I have a feather touch focuser with an 11:1 fine tune knob. It wouldn't surprise me if the crescent is thinner in good seeing than it appears in images.

👍👍👍

Ron

[N-1]

Beautiful shots. This may also be an issue of perception, but I was convinced that the planet’s crescent was thinner in the eyepiece than it was in the images that I took.

Did you experience that as well?

Again, nicely done!

Ron.
 

 

The reason is that it's easy to overexpose the crescent, making it appear somewhat wider in pictures than visually because parts of it are burnt out. You may also be capturing seeing-related movement in one frame, which smears detail. So the solution may be to expose more 'to the left', i.e. darker than the camera's metering suggests, by way of shorter exposures (rather than lower ISO, for example). That will improve both of the above issues. Nailing focus 100% is also essential, but that goes without saying. 

 

That said, the pics in this thread are pretty neat!

[Dave Mitsky]

I observed Venus and Mercury earlier tonight with my Canon 15x50 IS and the Naylor observatory's 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain and it 5" f/5 finder scope.

Mercury was about 5 degrees to the lower left of Venus. Unlike last week, I wasn't able to see Mercury without optical aid.

I took some afocal iPhone photos trough both telescopes which I'll post at a later date.

[RMay]

The reason is that it's easy to overexpose the crescent, making it appear somewhat wider in pictures than visually because parts of it are burnt out. You may also be capturing seeing-related movement in one frame, which smears detail. So the solution may be to expose more 'to the left', i.e. darker than the camera's metering suggests, by way of shorter exposures (rather than lower ISO, for example). That will improve both of the above issues. Nailing focus 100% is also essential, but that goes without saying.

That said, the pics in this thread are pretty neat!

I just let the camera do its thing; I thought that slider adjusted aperture openings and not exposure, but… Occam’s razor says you’re correct.

If the clouds ever part, I’ll goose the exposure times.

Ron

Edited by RMay, 13 March 2025 - 12:10 AM.

[RMay]

A cloudy but surprise view of Venus while waiting for the eclipse. Rain and snow all around us.

 

Ron

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[Starhunter249]

Venus on March 13th, 2025. 7:30 PM CST. Taken through a Celestron 4SE telescope on Iphone 11 with astroshader. Single frame. 0.01 exposure. Hoping to keep trying on Venus until March 22nd.

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[PKDfan]

Well i just had a beautiful clear day not a cloud in sight and low and behold right at sunset the clouds moved in.
This is getting ridiculous.


CSS
Lance

[RMay]

My window to find and capture Venus this evening between heavy cloud cover couldn’t have been more than four minutes. Of the 50-60 shots taken, this was the sole survivor.

 

Ron 

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[RMay]

Just another view through the muck last night. I hope to grab a better daytime pic today at 3pm local time. Image doesn’t appear to be changing much as it nears ic, but I expect that it will closer to the 22nd.

 

This one taken yesterday about 10 minutes after sunset (7:25pm local) and about an hour before Venus set, lost in the clouds.

 

Ron

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[Dave Mitsky]

I observed Venus and Mercury earlier tonight with my Canon 15x50 IS and the Naylor observatory's 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain and it 5" f/5 finder scope.

Mercury was about 5 degrees to the lower left of Venus. Unlike last week, I wasn't able to see Mercury without optical aid.

I took some afocal iPhone photos trough both telescopes which I'll post at a later date.

Here's the afocal shot that I took of Venus through the 17" classical Cassegrain on March 12th.

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[Dave Mitsky]

The sky cleared up a bit after sunset on Friday evening and I was able to grab a quick look at a tiny and thin crescent Venus low in the sky using my Canon 15x50 IS.