Viewing Venus query

[Night Hawk]

Hi, Are there any tips you can give when viewing venus?

I knew it would be bright which is was. I managed to view it as orange/yellow with some blue. Is this correct?

Are there any particular coloured filters you need to use to see the planet?

Is it worth looking at with my scope whilst it's low in the horizon?

I did view Venus through my LP filter which does add a hint of blue. I've viewed Venus a few times over the last few weeks, but I always seem a little dissapointed looking at it. Is Venus worth looking at as it's bright with no visible features?

[Joves]

You won't see any features on Venus. Not unless you travel beyond its thick atmosphere. It was only fairly recently that anyone on earth saw past that, and it took actually "going there" and photographing below its clouds to see that it was about as hospitable to life as the inside of a furnace. You WILL see its phases though. Accept this and relish its moonlike phases and Venus all of a sudden becomes a great object to view. It's no Jupiter, Saturn or Mars (during opposition), but it's still a beauty of a planet to observe in my humble opinion.

[Pondus]

So far I`ve found Venus pretty boring observed through a telescope. Maybe I should give it another chance.

Rune

[John]

I find Venus more rewarding to observe when there is still a lot of light in the sky. Obviously you need to avoid the Sun but if you can find Venus early on it'ts phases can be nicely defined with minimal glare. I've never seen much in the way of surface features other than vague shadings but it's dense clouds mask it's surface features and are responsible for it's brightness. It's size varies considerably with the disk getting larger as the phase is thinner. Mercury is worth finding too when it's favorably placed. To me it looks like a "mini me" version of Venus

[Stu]

Some SkySafari specials to illustrate the changes in size and phase.

Currently it looks like this:

It progresses through to a thin crescent when it is actually mag -4.5, brighter than now.

This is it towards the end of July

Stu

[Mr Spock]

I find Venus much better to observe when the sky is light. It's too small and bright for a dark sky.

Venus is pretty featureless at the best of times. At the moment it's quite small too.

[Stu]

Nighthawk, you mentioned seeing orange and blue around the disk. Venus is basically white so these colours are false. Most likely due to atmospheric effects as you are viewing through quite a depth of atmosphere. Depending upon your scope too it could be Chromatic Abberation. If you have a newt though it will be the atmosphere.

I echo the points about viewing in brighter conditions, and also as high as possible. In summer it is a balance between letting the atmosphere cool a little after the heat of the day, but still getting it as high as possible

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi, Are there any tips you can give when viewing venus?

I knew it would be bright which is was. I managed to view it as orange/yellow with some blue. Is this correct?

Are there any particular coloured filters you need to use to see the planet?

Is it worth looking at with my scope whilst it's low in the horizon?

I did view Venus through my LP filter which does add a hint of blue. I've viewed Venus a few times over the last few weeks, but I always seem a little dissapointed looking at it. Is Venus worth looking at as it's bright with no visible features?

You could try a No: #47. I purchased one from AstroBoot last year for £4.50GBP + p&p. (just checked and they still have them).

Apparently they work best in 'scopes of 6inch or larger aperture.

[Night Hawk]

Just ordered the no 47 filter. Looks like it will help viewing other planets as well. Thank for all your replies.

[bruno]

I read on the forum that you could see the planets during daylight, so when i got home early on tuesday i got my scope out & had a go & yes you can see planets during the day  so i focused on venus & it appeared as a little white star i was amazed  so then i decided to take shots of it  using my qhy5-ll & 3x barlow  and i got the planet in the top phase shown in the above post ( will post picture when i,m back at home) as for the other planets they were too near the sun to look at

[mikeDnight]

A Wrattan 11 filter is popular for observing Venus. Also, as has already been mentioned, observing it while its high and against a twighlight sky gives better results. It is also possible to observe Venus in daylight while high in the sky, only ensure the sun is blocked from view by a building or some other structure, so you can't sweep the sun into the field of view by accident.

Subtle cloud features can often be seen. Looking for dark shadings may lead to disappointment, but if you study the globe looking for its brighter areas, then the shaded markings become more evident. The Y shaped feature imaged by NASA has been a regular feature seen by amateurs for well over a hundred years. So what you may see isn't just a contrast effect, some of it can be actual cloud top detail.

Mike :-)

[Stu]

Nice tweet from Dr Abel yesterday with Venus sketches....

https://twitter.com/paul_abel/status/588409624715522049

Personally I've never seen any detail on it but I probably need to try harder under better conditions

[mikeDnight]

I've attached a few more doodles below just to show Venus is worth taking seriously. In fact it can be a great planet to fine tune your powers of observation on in preparation for Mars.

Mike

[bruno]

here is the post i took at teatime on tuesday 

[AustinR]

You won't see features on Venus, but attempt imagining how it would be possible (as Galileo did) to have Venus show those peculiar phases and yet orbit around the Earth. It's no wonder that he went with the Copernican system! This is what I tell people when showing them Venus through my scope. It's not about what you're seeing, its about what it means to have seen it.

Without Venus, I challenge you to prove the earth is NOT the center of the universe, using just your eyes and a telescope.

[BenDavis]

http://www.astrobin.com/172228/B/

[nytecam]

You won't see any features on Venus. Not unless you travel beyond its thick atmosphere. It was only fairly recently that anyone on earth saw past that, and it took actually "going there" and photographing below its clouds to see that it was about as hospitable to life as the inside of a furnace. You WILL see its phases though. Accept this and relish its moonlike phases and Venus all of a sudden becomes a great object to view. It's no Jupiter, Saturn or Mars (during opposition), but it's still a beauty of a planet to observe in my humble opinion.

The colouring you observe [fringing] is probably due to our atmospheric refraction adding false colour usually blue and orange to opposite edges of the planet. Refractors can exagerate the effect.   It's minimised by observing Venus higher in the sky at dusk after sundown in a bright sky.  Good luck