Venus 22-3-07

[John]

Managed to get my 1st decent view of Venus this aparition earlier this evening with the ED80. I set the scope up just after the sun had set but there was still plenty of light in the sky. I found Venus with binoculars below the crescent moon then had a look through the scope using an 8mm Tele Vue plossl (75x) and barlowed (150x). The planet was at around 60% phase and I could see that the terminator was less well defined than the limb. I thought I might have glimpsed vague shadings on the planet but nothing I could be sure of. As the light faded the planet quickly became to dazzling and the definition was lost.

Still it was nice to have a glimpse of the cloud tops of the "hell planet" !. I'd love to know what the Earth looks like from Venus

Observing while there is still a quite lot of light in the sky is a good tip with Venus and it works for Jupiter to some extent as well.

John

[geppetto]

Nice one John

I'll agree about viewing Venus in half light, was doing just that yesterday

whilst set up and waiting to image the moon.

Great to see the phase of Venus a bit clearer

[tom.yates]

Had some of my best views of Jupiter in daylight

[The Warthog]

Still it was nice to have a glimpse of the cloud tops of the "hell planet" !. I'd love to know what the Earth looks like from Venus

You wouldn't be able to see it because the sulfuric acid rain would dissolve your telescope.

[GazOC]

...and crush it!!

[John]

Good points WH and Gaz - apart from being crushed, melted, corroded by sulphuric acid rain, not being able to see through the clouds and the distortions created by the thick poisonous atmosphere, Venus is a great place to observe from right ? - I mean no bothersome trees and streetlights :)

John