Venus - WARNING! Not a very good image at all, Mk II

[Andrew*]

I saw it last night quite high up and made it today's task to capture it. My partner's brother, Martin, is visiting from Germany for a couple of weeks so he joined me and helped me out.

Seeing started off abysmal. Barely even the phase could be distinguished on screen. But after a while it settled down marginally. Focus was extremely tricky (partly because of the seeing) and a Bahtinov mask didn't help.

I've pulled and pulled at my data, but because it's so rubbish it's difficult to work out as you fiddle with the settings in Registax, whether you are improving the image and revealing real detail, or just inventing stuff :? . I stacked a Celestron Ultima 2x and GSO 2" 2x barlows for this, but still the image scale is miniscule. I'm a little bit suspicious that the latter barlow has caused scatter around the planet.

Oh, and by the way, should have paid attention to dartitti's advice in LB's post and tried out some filters - this image is just through an IR block.

Without further ado, my first miserable Venus image:

(click to enlarge)

Andrew

[barkis]

Don't put yourself on the rack over this image Andrew. Venus is not the easy target it looks.

I've seen a lot worse than this mate, most of them my own from days of yore. I'm sure you do not need me to tell you the planet is not very receptive to earth bound cameras, whatever instrument they are attached to. You have imaged it's phase, and that is as much as you can get out of it. The cusps are indistinct, because of the dense atmoshpere, so that makes it look a bit odd shape wise. That's my take on it anyway. I think it's just a boring git of a place.

Ron.

[Sam]

Good on you for having a go Andrew! The phase is visible and it doesn't look too bad at all

[Ant]

Good going Andrew. The phase is clear. You have over cooked the processing I think but looking at my AVI's from earlier I'll be doing the same.

Venus in the evening is MUCH harder than Venus in the mornings, the atmosphere just boils in the evening...

Try for a morning apparition in a few months time and you'll be amazed at the difference...

Cheers

Ant

[Andrew*]

Thanks guys,

I knew I'd picked a tricky and unrewarding target, but at least I can say I got an image of Venus!

Looking forward to your one, Ant,

And I will heed your advice and attempt to wrench myself out of bed one morning. Can't imagine I'll be in any fit state to figure out where everything goes, then patiently coax her onto the chip for an hour, then spend another focusing, and not scream and tie my ED80 in a knot when the clouds cover her up just as I hit the "capture" button, but one can always try

Andrew

[Ant]

It's hard getting out of a nice warm bed, but worth the effort.

I wouldn't be looking forward to my one if I was you - I've seen it

Cheers

Ant

[daz]

Great effort indeed Andrew!!!

[Greg]

I'd have to say that's pretty good..

I've been jinxed with thick cloud and drizzle the last few days So not a sausage from me...

Good capture Andrew

[Andrew*]

Thanks