Venus MAK 180 First Light...

[Ant]

Had a small break in the clouds earlier tonight and decided to rush around and set up the Mak for a first light.

Should never rush these things...

Managed without too much effort to get Venus on the ship with a 3x barlow and DMK :shock:

Focusing seemed easier than with the Mak127, but that could have been beginners luck

I have to capture venus in the evening around the front of the house and the wind was blowing a gale. Venus was going off and back on the chip numerous times... In the end I gave up with the 3x Barlow as focusing / framing was pretty much impossible.

So I thought that I would go with just the DMK. So this image is the DMK at prime focus of the Skymax 180. Fl = 2700mm - still an impressive scale considering.

I think this Mak is going to be great on the Moon and Planets (when they are back).

Here is it, 159 frames from an AVI of around 800.

(click to enlarge)

Not a great image - clearly some focusing issues, and more frames would have been helpful. But for a first (rushed) light I think it's OK...

Cheers

Ant

[Andrew*]

OMG, you had wind to contend with as well :shock:

Hats off to you! :notworthy:

Out of interest, where did you set the alignment point in Registax? I only used one point, and put about half the planet within the box (128 pixels). Alignment of frames was pretty much spot on, but with the whole planet in the box it went way off. :?

Any idea how big Venus is at the moment? I was using an effective f/l of 2400mm, drizzled x2 or 3 and still got a tiny image.

Andrew

[Ant]

Oh yeah there was wind alright and it had nothing to do with curry!

Cheers mate, I'd like a stiller night and more frames. A thinner phase also makes focusing easier.

I use an alignment box that completely surrounds Venus and then some - I've taken a screen dump to show you on mine.

Venus currently has a disc illumination of 63% and is 19 arc seconds

Ant

[Greg]

Nicely done Ant..

I've never had a go at Venus, you've inspired me...

Nice capture mate..

[Tim]

Nice one Ant, you must have been pretty sharp off the blocks to get that at last minute!

TJ

[Ant]

Cheers guys,

I have to admit that Venus is pretty uninteresting. But did look nice through the scope - image scale is huge on the Mak. This could be the scope that converts me back to a visual observer as well as a imager...

My low power EP with this scope is over 108x... I'm used to that being my high power

Venus will continue to improve it's placement over the next few weeks, and it's phase gets more interesting.

Not working today helped TJ, I was set up at 4:00 ish - and had taken the AVI's by 4:40 and was back indoors. Just in time as well, there were spits in the air not long after I packed away!

Ant

[lunator]

Hi Ant

Looks promising with the 180

Look forward to seeing the reults when you have a chance to set up with less wind etc

Cheers

Ian

[GazOC]

Nice image Ant. Great scope eh?

[barkis]

Yep, you have a fine instrument for lunar/planetary imaging Ant.

The venus attempt is quite good considering other influences. Much like Andrews attack on the planet. If you had other targets, I don't think you would have gone for venus.

At f15, plus a TeleVue x2.5 Imagemate or similar, you are gonna burn em up.

Ron.

[Ant]

Gaz, yes mate I am gob smacked at how good the image looked. Visually Venus was stunning. I've never seen it that good... Am I allowed to say WOW in a first light report?

Ron, I agree that if the moon or other planet was around then Venus probably wouldn't have got a look in. But I will be revisiting Venus again on the next clear night as IMO it is a very overlooked planet. The phases are quite interesting.

It's like the Marie Celeste [sp] out there for planets at the moment!

Ant