Venus 11/11/2019

[NenoVento]

Hi all,

Since I had all my gear eating sand for Mercury's transit (it seriously was that windy), after I couln't follow it any longer due to its comming too low in my horizon (not to mention my neighbour's wall and a couple of palm trees further down the line), I decided to try my new ZWO IR 850nm Pass filter:

The gear:

    Celestron CPC 800 GPS XLT
    ZWO IR 850nm Pass filter
    Risingcam GPCMOSS02000KMA

The software:

    ToupSky (I wish I had written down the capture parameters, but I didn't... A lot of gain, that's for sure!)
    Autostakkert
    RegiStax
    The Gimp

This is by far the best image I've ever made of Venus. With a not so bad seeing I'm curious about whether it will worth using a barlow to get more detais.

Thanks for watching,

 

NV

PS: I've got the ZWO IR 850nm Pass filter instead of the Astronomik ProPlanet 742 IR-pass, hoping that it will be parfocal with my ZWO LRGB set, was I too optimistic? (I haven't got time yet to try them out).

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by NenoVento

[Pete Presland]

Lovely Venus image NV, the gibbous phase is clearly visible and its nice and sharply focused. 

I am completely unfamiliar with your camera, so I don't know whether you are operating at the optimum imaging scale or not with your scope. what's the pixel size for the camera?

I would guess probably not and a Barlow would bring you nearer. It will probably not however show on more detail with Venus, you need a UV filter (not cheap) to show the faint clouds. Its worth a try though because I am sure I have read in the past about people having some success with just a I/R filter.

I did try a few years back a Violet filter and a I/R filter to capture the clouds, but never managed any. It wasn't until I purchased my U/V filter I started to capture them.

[NenoVento]

Thanks Pete,

The cammera carries a Sony IMX290 chip, such as the one ZWO uses in its ASI 290MM model which, if I am not mistaken, has a pixel size of 2.9 um. Next time I'll try my 2x and 2.5x barlows, wish me luck! (also to get the time and the weather to do it).

NV

PS: A while ago I looked into the UV filters and, boy, they are way out of my league!

Edited November 15, 2019 by NenoVento
Typos various

[orion25]

Nice gibbous phase on Venus. It's always been an enigma for me to get any detail from Venus, but I surprisingly got a little detail using my Meade variable polarizing filter and a barlow a few years back.

Cheers,

Reggie  

[NenoVento]

On 15/11/2019 at 19:09, orion25 said:

Nice gibbous phase on Venus. It's always been an enigma for me to get any detail from Venus, but I surprisingly got a little detail using my Meade variable polarizing filter and a barlow a few years back.

Cheers,

Reggie  

Thanks for the tip @orion25 (Reggie)!. I also happen to have one of those around (a solomark one which I used to reduce Moon's glare when looking through the scope), next time I'll give it a go. My idea is to try recording a video with the polarizing set as dark as it can be, another as clear as it can be and another one somewhere in between. I believe it is going to be tricky to pull such a trick, though...

Regards,

NV