Advice for viewing Venus Please ?

[wesdon1]

Hi all. Just wondering, anyone got any tips for seeing Venus without so much glare please ? I've tried different power eyepieces but the glare is stopping me see Phase ? My 130/900 Newt Reflector is well collimated. I'm wondering maybe a filter of some sort, but the few different coloured filters i have didn't help ? Any advice from more ecperienced members would be greatly appreciated ! ( By the way, if anyone has a device to Banish those damn Clouds, i'd be over the Moon ! (( Well, strictly speaking, UNDER the Moon ! But you get my point ! haha )) ). 

Thanks, Wes, Liverpool ( Bortle 8 )

[knobby]

You could try masking the open end of scope to allow less light through.

[wesdon1]

3 minutes ago, knobby said:

You could try masking the open end of scope to allow less light through.

Hi Knobby. You know i never even thought of doing that ?? I have done it with full Moons many a time but it never even crossed my mind to try with a Planet ? Thank You so much, i'll try that next time. 

[Waddensky]

Masking works great to reduce the glare, but keep in mind that it reduces the resolving power of the telescope too.

[wesdon1]

2 minutes ago, Waddensky said:

Masking works great to reduce the glare, but keep in mind that it reduces the resolving power of the telescope too.

Thanks for the info Waddensky. When we had a few hours clear weather recently, i was viewing Venus, but the brightness was simply overwhelming my 'scope/eyepieces, and i'm not sure why ? Admittedly, my eyepieces are bog standard SW 10, 25mm and a couple unbranded Plossl's, 3.4mm and 20mm respectively, so maybe my eyepieces simply aren't good enough ? It was my first ever time viewing Venus in my 15 Month Astronomy Journey ( though wanted Telescope for years ) so i was so disappointed when i couldn't get it to resolve/see phase(s) ? It's just so damn bright ! Which until then i always expected to be a great help cos i thought the brighter, the easier to see/resolve ? I suddenly feel as clueless as a first time newbie all over again lol. 

Wes. 

Skywatcher Newtonian Reflector 114/500. Skywatcher 130/900 Newt. Reflector. Skywatcher 200/1200 Dob mounted on Skywatcher EQ5.

 

[Waddensky]

1 hour ago, wesdon1 said:

Thanks for the info Waddensky. When we had a few hours clear weather recently, i was viewing Venus, but the brightness was simply overwhelming my 'scope/eyepieces, and i'm not sure why ? Admittedly, my eyepieces are bog standard SW 10, 25mm and a couple unbranded Plossl's, 3.4mm and 20mm respectively, so maybe my eyepieces simply aren't good enough ? It was my first ever time viewing Venus in my 15 Month Astronomy Journey ( though wanted Telescope for years ) so i was so disappointed when i couldn't get it to resolve/see phase(s) ? It's just so damn bright ! Which until then i always expected to be a great help cos i thought the brighter, the easier to see/resolve ? I suddenly feel as clueless as a first time newbie all over again lol.

Don't worry, we've all been there haha. Venus' brightness is always overwhelming, no matter what eyepieces you're using. The resolving power of a telescope determines the amount of detail you can see. This depends mainly on the aperture of the telescope. If you mask your aperture too much, it may be more difficult to discern details like Venus' phases for example.

Another idea is to observe Venus earlier in the evening or even before sunset. Because of the lower contrast between the background sky and the planet, the glare is less overwhelming. But be VERY careful not to point your telescope to the Sun accidentally.

[Les Ewan]

Venus is at it's biggest and most spectacular during its crescent stage as its approaching or receding from inferior conjunction when the crescent is easily seen with with 10X50 binoculars. The draw back then is its closer to the Sun with the inherent risk scanning the sky with the Sun close by.

I took this image of Venus on the afternoon of 27 May 2012 with a 8" Newtonian 8 days before the transit.

[joe aguiar]

hey wes 

that's a good info on seeing venus b4 it gets dark.

you cam also try a moon filter to knock down the glare, theres one called polarizing moon filter where u can control a wheel to block 5% to 35% bloackage. there give u more control normally most others are set at 25% or 35% bloackage BUT I wouldn't buy it if you don't already have it.  But if you have a regular moon filter try it cause it works the same way, when the moon light it too much we use it to stop down the glare.

see if that works

joejaguar

[John]

Another vote for observing Venus before it gets dark here. When there is still some light left in the sky. Just make sure that the Sun is safely out of the way. Jupiter is another planet that benefits from this technique - I've had some of my best views of the giant planet against a trilight sky.

 

[John]

Venus is looking rather good just now actually. 200x with my 100mm refractor is showing the 78% phase very nicely although the phase is obvious at about half of that magnification. The planets apparent diameter is around 14 arc seconds just now.

 

[Paz]

In daylight a good tip for keeping safe is to have the scope in the shade of a building to your right of you as you look towards Venus so that you are in a shadow that can only get bigger over time and the sun can't accidentally hit your scope.

[cletrac1922]

Venus is covered from think layer of CO2, caused by greenhouse effect, due to volcanic action on the planet

The brightness of Venus is caused by the sun reflecting off this CO2 layer

Due to this think CO2 layer, we are not able to see the surface of Venus

The attached pic taken during the transit of Venus in 2012, with camera of my android phone to the eyepiece, hence not good image

That day, our club had a public viewing on the foreshore of the goldcoast

I left my ED80 on EQ5pro mount as visual, while other club members imaged ever 10 to 15 minutes

The entire transit lasted about 8 hours

 

[celestron8g8]

Try using either a moon filter or just a blue colored filter . Other than those you might try a a UHC or IR type filters . I might be naming the wrong one cause I’m not home to double check but at home i have one of celestrons old Nextimagers for planet imaging and the filter came with it but haven’t seen it in so long I can’t remember exactly which one it is but you probably know what I’m talking about . 

[cletrac1922]

Ron

How is things across the ditch, Pacific Ocean

Nice to have you aboard

You going to watch the SpaceX  Crew Dragon Launch Escape Test on the NASA channel on saturday morning, your time

Full details on the NASA APP

John

[wesdon1]

22 hours ago, Waddensky said:

Don't worry, we've all been there haha. Venus' brightness is always overwhelming, no matter what eyepieces you're using. The resolving power of a telescope determines the amount of detail you can see. This depends mainly on the aperture of the telescope. If you mask your aperture too much, it may be more difficult to discern details like Venus' phases for example.

Another idea is to observe Venus earlier in the evening or even before sunset. Because of the lower contrast between the background sky and the planet, the glare is less overwhelming. But be VERY careful not to point your telescope to the Sun accidentally.

Thank You so much! You talk so much sense and wisdom! I will adopt your advice and let you know how i get on! And my goodness yes i will be extremely careful not to accidentally stray into sun light! Thats one area of this fine hobby i am actually really aware of, safety! Thanks again so much Waddensky, i greatly appreciate your help and advice!

Wes.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi Wes.

As others have said, try before it gets to dark and watch out for the Sun. Also, I find a variable polarising filter or a #47 (violet) filter work.

[NGC 1502]

Almost any filter to dim the view is likely to improve things.  

I’ve used a regular moon filter ( same as neutral density or ND ) a nebula filter although that gives a strong colour cast, but the best is a variable polarising filter, experiment to find the best setting.

Some say Venus is boring, I don’t agree. If you catch it in the deepening twilight with a blue transparent sky it can look spectacular with the unaided eye. Of course, as already mentioned, telescopically the best views will be before deep twilight when it’s at a higher elevation.

My favourite view is when it’s a large thin crescent phase.

Ed.

[Peter77]

Agree about the glare. Tried to photograph it with phone through eyepiece and this is what I got. 100x mag if I remember correctly. Will try with a moonfilter next time observing. I think the the side facing us was almost fully sunlit that time.

[NGC 1502]

That’s a great pic especially considering what you used.  I used my 70mm Pronto last evening to view Venus in the deepening twilight.  I used a variable polarising filter at a strong setting. This cleaned up the view greatly, used up to 125x when the phase was obvious.  Sharper at 80x.

Looking forward to hopefully catching Mercury as well, around eastern elongation on 10th February, and Venus crescent phase as the year progresses.

Ed.

[Mr Spock]

I've found twilight to be the best time.

Sometimes daylight is good too. Just after the sun drops below the houses here is perfect. As long as you know where to look the it's an easy to see object against a brightish sky.

[Peter77]

On 15/01/2020 at 22:04, cletrac1922 said:

Venus is covered from think layer of CO2, caused by greenhouse effect, due to volcanic action on the planet

The brightness of Venus is caused by the sun reflecting off this CO2 layer

Due to this think CO2 layer, we are not able to see the surface of Venus

The attached pic taken during the transit of Venus in 2012, with camera of my android phone to the eyepiece, hence not good image

That day, our club had a public viewing on the foreshore of the goldcoast

I left my ED80 on EQ5pro mount as visual, while other club members imaged ever 10 to 15 minutes

The entire transit lasted about 8 hours

 

To be honest, I think this is a very good image

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

This evening i managed to start viewing Venus with a 200p Dob in the twilight for 30 minutes before a tree obscured the view.

The glare and accompanying diffraction spikes were a distraction but I could still see the disk. Each time I swapped to a higher mag, the image improved.  Finally using a 4mm TMB clone (£15 used!) giving 300x mag, the dimming of the view and resulting image took my breath away. Clearly a planet with approx 30% shadow. Amazing! I had to drag my 20yr old son out for a look. He seemed mildly impressed... 

Basically the advice here is sound. Set out to dim the view, trying either filters, an aperture stop, or higher mag if seeing is good.

Wesdon1 did you try the advice and get a better view?

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[John]

Using higher magnifications does dim the view - it works on the moon as well !

I used a UHC filter as well tonight on Venus as the background sky darkened and that gave a decent image of the phase with much less glare.

To see any hints of the surface details (well, cloud top details) on Venus I think having as much light still in the sky as possible helps a lot. I saw a few vague shadows myself when I first started to observe but these became harder to discern as the background sky darkened.