Venus UV IR = RGB False colour 25th July

[neil phillips]

As the Title says

Having trouble with collimation at the moment i tried fitting a washer to my secondary to comabat digs. But its moving. At least thats what i hope it is ? Having to re collimate constantly. And the images from this night ( And recently ) will have been hit and miss. From very slightly off collimation, to more severe. I checked after i took the venus images and it moved only slightly.

Got some jupiter images to go through from this night. These are using my new 5 slot filter wheel. Its heavier though which i dont like as my focusser is bog standard, And lean hang will likely occur. such are the tribulations of not having all the best mods. A nice focusser would be high on my list. As is a recoat of the mirrors. Hope to get some of these problems sorted for Jupiter at opposition. Seeing was average, but i got tight focus. which is hard in uv on venus i find.

[Space Cowboy]

Collimation problems or not those are super images Neil! Love the false colour shots they are awesome!

[neil phillips]

Hi Stuart venus is hard even with the special filters. But i find it a very interesting world. With those mysteriouse UV clouds. when they show. which they dont always do particulaly well. but when they do. I find it just as interesting as jupiter

Cheers

[Rihard]

Hi Stuart venus is hard even with the special filters. But i find it a very interesting world. With those mysteriouse UV clouds. when they show. which they dont always do particulaly well. but when they do. I find it just as interesting as jupiter

Cheers

Always love to see images of Venus, I agree it's a very interesting world. It's been the first thing I ever seen through a telescope (as a kid) and, seeing it on books, I always dreamed to see it / image it with some more realistic details. I find its look awesome and somewhat elegant. Planet Venus deserves the name of the beauty goddess.

Bad collimation or not, they are great shots!

[Kokatha man]

Very good images Neil - apropos my comments about exposure settings in your other thread I've dropped my histogram % dramatically over time for imaging Venus.....my rationale is that there are such slight variations in the dynamic range/contrast across the planet's apparent surface between the cloud variations/details - when they're able to be imaged - that anything beyond about 50% exposure just blows them clean away..!

Still struggling to find a "magic formula" for daytime imaging of Jupiter though.....

[si@nite]

Stunning shots Neil some of the best ive seen. Regards Simon.

[Clayton]

Very nice Neil

[htj]

Great images. Getting details out of Venus is almost up there with drawing blood from a stone, so I'm impressed :-)

[neil phillips]

Very good images Neil - apropos my comments about exposure settings in your other thread I've dropped my histogram % dramatically over time for imaging Venus.....my rationale is that there are such slight variations in the dynamic range/contrast across the planet's apparent surface between the cloud variations/details - when they're able to be imaged - that anything beyond about 50% exposure just blows them clean away..!

Still struggling to find a "magic formula" for daytime imaging of Jupiter though.....

I thinl the UVs on this were just above 50% Darryl maybe 55 60% I wonder if anything can affect the values ? i wouldnt have thought so. im thinking phase size, dirrent barlows used. condions, or sky brightness. The values on this seemed ok. Also as the sky brightens on a long capture. the brightness goes up as it goes along. It can start ok but end up a bit too bright ( seen this on jup in the morning light too ) so what ive been doing is dropping the gain a little as the capture goes along. not too sure yet if i shoukd be doing that ?

[neil phillips]

Thanks for all the comments guys

BTW ive just won a Celestron 2x excel barlow, after getting hotshot of the month in the bbc sky at night mag with my first false colour shots i tried. Quite pleased about that. Not sure how good or bad they are. But i already own a Ultima 2x, its old but still workable. not sure if i should try the Excel. or just sell it on for something else i could use. A better quality 3x than i already have is what im thinking. Though saying that this Antares 3x seems to be doing ok on venus

[Space Cowboy]

Bravo Neil! Well deserved. Those false colour images are almost Earth-like.

[AztecastroMcJ]

Excellent results Neil, false colour shots are really good,

and congrats on winning barlow, very well deserved

would be interested to know how excel performs compared to ultima

James

[King]

Stunning set of Venus images with good detail! I've yet to achieve pretty much any Venusian detail at all compared to that but hope that improves after I grab one of those UVenus filters or some such. The thing is we barely get the required weather to even bother with that (though I just missed a rare opportunity), so it's always good to see other people putting them up.

[neil phillips]

Stunning set of Venus images with good detail! I've yet to achieve pretty much any Venusian detail at all compared to that but hope that improves after I grab one of those UVenus filters or some such. The thing is we barely get the required weather to even bother with that (though I just missed a rare opportunity), so it's always good to see other people putting them up.

If you get any captures as good as your recent venus, with a uv filter detail should show. The downside of uv is they dim the image quite a lot. but good detail can still be got with even a 7"

A W47 is another option but IR blocking is needed too.

[neil phillips]

Excellent results Neil, false colour shots are really good,

and congrats on winning barlow, very well deserved

would be interested to know how excel performs compared to ultima

James

If i use it James ill post my images and my thoughts, cheers

[neil phillips]

Thanks again for the comments guys. Apologies on the mis spelt section. I was rushing when i sent the message and didnt check

[htj]

Thanks for all the comments guys

BTW ive just won a Celestron 2x excel barlow, after getting hotshot of the month in the bbc sky at night mag with my first false colour shots i tried. Quite pleased about that. Not sure how good or bad they are. But i already own a Ultima 2x, its old but still workable. not sure if i should try the Excel. or just sell it on for something else i could use. A better quality 3x than i already have is what im thinking. Though saying that this Antares 3x seems to be doing ok on venus

Regular barlows are made of glass (or something similar), which will block a large portion of UV. If you want a lens in the image train, see if you find something made out of fused silicate. Of course there is no harm in trying with the barlows and see how they work out. Some glass types may work better than others - I am not an expert.

[neil phillips]

Regular barlows are made of glass (or something similar), which will block a large portion of UV. If you want a lens in the image train, see if you find something made out of fused silicate. Of course there is no harm in trying with the barlows and see how they work out. Some glass types may work better than others - I am not an expert.

Yes i agree. Not sure where to get such a barlow in the uk. But dont forget those that use SCTs also have anti reflection coatings, but ive seen good images of venus with some of those. Its intirely possible though a newtonian with a fused silicate barlow is the optimum equipment to use

Thanks again for the feedback guys

[Kokatha man]

I thinl the UVs on this were just above 50% Darryl maybe 55 60% I wonder if anything can affect the values ? i wouldnt have thought so. im thinking phase size, dirrent barlows used. condions, or sky brightness. The values on this seemed ok. Also as the sky brightens on a long capture. the brightness goes up as it goes along. It can start ok but end up a bit too bright ( seen this on jup in the morning light too ) so what ive been doing is dropping the gain a little as the capture goes along. not too sure yet if i shoukd be doing that ?

Hi again Neil - I've been too busy with "work-work" to do much forum scanning but I would agree with the phase and image scale affecting Venus naturally..! That "histo creep" is allways a side-effect of imaging as daylight encroaches unfortunately as you say, I usually just keep on dropping the gamma as it seems to counteract this effect somewhat pushing the histo back towards the left-hand side but it isn't a magic cure by any means.....I canvassed a couple of folks on CN and elsewhere on what their daylight imaging techniques for Jupiter were but apart from the gamma manipulation which isn't totally sufficient imho I couldn't get any hints myself from anyone..!

Obviously there are some techniques that work 'cos I have seen some very nice daylight images over time.....probably more of importance to someone like me due to Jove's altitude here atm.....probably rambling off topic a bit from your own comments and thread here in all this - but maybe that's a sympton of my infrequent posting currently....!

[fredster]

Superb results Neil. Not sure i've seen such a good set of Venus images.

[neil phillips]

Hi again Neil - I've been too busy with "work-work" to do much forum scanning but I would agree with the phase and image scale affecting Venus naturally..! That "histo creep" is allways a side-effect of imaging as daylight encroaches unfortunately as you say, I usually just keep on dropping the gamma as it seems to counteract this effect somewhat pushing the histo back towards the left-hand side but it isn't a magic cure by any means.....I canvassed a couple of folks on CN and elsewhere on what their daylight imaging techniques for Jupiter were but apart from the gamma manipulation which isn't totally sufficient imho I couldn't get any hints myself from anyone..!

Obviously there are some techniques that work 'cos I have seen some very nice daylight images over time.....probably more of importance to someone like me due to Jove's altitude here atm.....probably rambling off topic a bit from your own comments and thread here in all this - but maybe that's a sympton of my infrequent posting currently....!

Discussion is always interesting to me Darryl, Wouldnt have thought about dropping gamma, but makes a lot of sense to do that. as contrast drops with the daylight creep doesnt it. Will have to try that. I should really be using fire capture as it logs file settings. But im just so intune with IC capture.Its just something i feel comftable with. Even though fire capture is better.

Should bite the bullet and start experimenting with fire capture. As i should be thinking about settings more than i do. But i tend to use my eyes a lot in the feild. and what looks right as far as levels goes. often is.

But i should be logging it. as i tend to second guess what ive been doing. and it can often be slightly more or less than i remember. Thats not so much a problem for me, But is when someone asks advice ect. So i should always point this out when mentioning some settings Darryl.

[neil phillips]

Superb results Neil. Not sure i've seen such a good set of Venus images.

For the uk there reasonable Fred, but ive seen much better for sure. Would love to get something special. And i will certainly keep trying given the chance

Cheers

[Zul]

Stunning image!