8 replies to this topic

[CollinofAlabama]

I was trimming the Wisteria in the back yard this evening and just noticed Venus in the twilight as I was finishing up.  I'd missed it the night before.  Didn't want to miss it again, but being even lower, I was unable to set up, exactly, on my property, but got a reasonably good shot of her in the ally, so set up in the ally I did.  I tried in vain to get off a photo at the eyepiece, which is hard enough to do handheld at night, but in the twilight, I found it impossible for me.  So I called in the cavalry, my two teenage daughters with very steady hands.  Given the goofy lighting of twilight, thought they did as good as a person could with a handheld setup before real dark sets in.  Used my old Orion 102mm Mak with Celestron 0.63 focal reducer, Meade 5000 25mm HD (for 33 power and 1.7° TFOV), on an AZ-5 mount.  Here's their handiwork.  Best shot is my elder daughter from a wide angle ...

 

Edited by CollinofAlabama, 17 March 2025 - 06:37 PM.

[CollinofAlabama]

My younger daughter got some pretty nice shots, too, again, handheld before genuine darkness ...

 

[CollinofAlabama]

And the best close up they got, again, from my younger.  A bit of distortion of the crescent makes it appear a bit fatter than it was to me visually, but this was handheld ...

 

[CollinofAlabama]

After Venus set and it got dark, I looked at Jupiter and his Galilean quad -- far Calisto then close Io-Europa one side, Ganymede the other -- then split Castor, Rigel, Almach, h3945 & observed the Trapezium in M42 with a 7mm Nagler T6 at 118 power in this setup.  With the Pan 24 at 33.4 x and 1.87° TFOV looked at Almach again and M41 in Canis Major.  Nice little observing session before dinner.

Edited by CollinofAlabama, 17 March 2025 - 06:38 PM.

[therealdmt]

Nice report, and good assist by the daughters!

 

I had an intruiging view of a very thin crescent Venus about a week ago, but couldn’t manage to get a handheld iPhone shot that did it justice…

Edited by therealdmt, 17 March 2025 - 02:36 AM.

[ziggeman]

My try a week ago. 

Mercury is there too. Thats the difficult one

https://www.cloudyni...phy/?p=14010987

[Dave Mitsky]

My last view of Venus was on Friday evening.  I had to use my Canon 15x50 IS since the planet was situated between branches of the trees to the northwest by that time. 

Venus will be at an altitude of only 7 degrees tonight at 7:30 p.m. EDT from my latitude.  It will be illuminated just 2%.

Edited by Dave Mitsky, 17 March 2025 - 09:38 PM.

[Dave Mitsky]

I drove to a location with a great western view tonight and observed Venus with my Canon 15x50 IS.  It appeared as a tiny, thin crescent.  The hues of atmospheric prismatic dispersion were visible.

 

I also took some iPhone photos.  Venus was situated in the west-northwest at an altitude of about 3 degrees at the time and subtended 58.8 arc seconds.

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[Dave Mitsky]

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