Venus

[R.frankish]

What do I need to be able to see venus other than like a star I have the skywatcher skyliner 250mm dob 

[x6gas]

I'd have thought that you should be able to observe the phases of Venus at your focal length of 1200mm.  It will depend on how well the scope is collimated, of course, and on your seeing.  Chucking a 2x barlow - or better still a Televue Powermate - in to your image train will definitely give you enough focal length...

Edited February 26, 2020 by x6gas

[R.frankish]

I have used the lazer to collimate it I shall have a look in to the televue powermate 

[Pete Presland]

Should be quite easy to see the phase, even considering how bright Venus is. Maybe try a few different filters to dim the brightness a little?

[Ibbo!]

Yep defo filter time.

 

[Stu]

No need for a PowerMate for the moment. Your scope should easily show you Venus with it's phase clear although it can be very bright and flaring, with lots of CA due to the atmosphere. Best to catch it as early and high as possible. What eyepieces do you have? It will appear non stellar even at relatively low power, but high power will show it more clearly.

[R.frankish]

I have tryed a few different 6mm and a 14mm82°es

[R.frankish]

Shall try it with filters 

[Ibbo!]

If it came with a moon filter or neutral density try that.

 

[soldave]

Good discussion, and was just going to start searching for something on this myself, as tonight was my first night in using my 130M to take a look at the moon and Venus. I've got a 25mm, 10mm and x2 Barlow. Tomorrow I'll try once more. @R.frankish good luck with your viewing. Are you going to try again tomorrow, if the skies are clear?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, R.frankish said:

I have tryed a few different 6mm and a 14mm82°es

What did you see with the 6mm? That should be x200 in your scope, plenty high enough to see the disk and phase. I saw it clearly this evening in my 4" at similar powers (and lower)

[Barry-W-Fenner]

I have been viewing Venus at either x150 or x240 mag through the 8" dob with a visual polarizing filter. Controlling the contrast to reduce the glare has made viewing the disc very enjoyable. That said with last nights sky haze I didnt need to use a filter at all to view Venus.

 

Baz

Edited February 27, 2020 by Barry-W-Fenner

[R.frankish]

14 hours ago, Stu said:

What did you see with the 6mm? That should be x200 in your scope, plenty high enough to see the disk and phase. I saw it clearly this evening in my 4" at similar powers (and lower)

Just a little white spot 

[R.frankish]

15 hours ago, soldave said:

Good discussion, and was just going to start searching for something on this myself, as tonight was my first night in using my 130M to take a look at the moon and Venus. I've got a 25mm, 10mm and x2 Barlow. Tomorrow I'll try once more. @R.frankish good luck with your viewing. Are you going to try again tomorrow, if the skies are clear?

I try every night I can so much to try find its amazing what is out there an every night I look at orion neb atleast once 

[R.frankish]

4 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I have been viewing Venus at either x150 or x240 mag through the 8" dob with a visual polarizing filter. Controlling the contrast to reduce the glare has made viewing the disc very enjoyable. That said with last nights sky haze I didnt need to use a filter at all to view Venus.

 

Baz

One of my friends is taking me some where dark again tonight went last night but by time we was there is was cloudy 

[R.frankish]

15 hours ago, Ibbo! said:

If it came with a moon filter or neutral density try that.

 

Didn't get anything except 2 standard eyepeices been buying new stuff as and when I have a little extra money 

[Stu]

36 minutes ago, R.frankish said:

Just a little white spot 

So, you see it as a disk, not an airy disk with diffraction rings like a star, that's good. Could you see that it was oval rather than round? It is around half phase currently so looks like a mini half moon. This is a bad smartphone shot through my 4" which shows the phase.

[R.frankish]

That pic is about what I could see it as 

[Captain Scarlet]

If you can try for it during daytime or very early evening, it won't flare as much and the phase should be highly evident.

The problem then is actually finding it in the first place. The technique I use is to fix the elevation of the scope at the altitude my App says it should be, point it in roughly the right direction, and pan from side to side only at, say, 30x magnification to begin with. You should find that bright dot reasonably quickly, then you can start upping the magnification.

Cheers, Magnus

[Stu]

17 minutes ago, R.frankish said:

That pic is about what I could see it as 

So, you could see the phase then at least. In my scope visually it was much more sharply defined than the picture. Some people can see subtle shading on Venus but it's not something I can honestly say I've seen. I think it depends to a large degree on how sensitive your eyes are to light towards the UV end of the spectrum, mine obviously aren't!

[RT65CB-SWL]

21 hours ago, R.frankish said:

Shall try it with filters 

 

21 hours ago, Ibbo! said:

If it came with a moon filter or neutral density try that.

 

I use either a variable polarising or #47 (violet).

[Barry-W-Fenner]

10 hours ago, Philip R said:

 

I use either a variable polarising or #47 (violet).

Plus 1 for the VP filter here.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

13 hours ago, Stu said:

So, you could see the phase then at least. In my scope visually it was much more sharply defined than the picture. Some people can see subtle shading on Venus but it's not something I can honestly say I've seen. I think it depends to a large degree on how sensitive your eyes are to light towards the UV end of the spectrum, mine obviously aren't!

I am in the same boat as you Stu, I can see the phase very clearly. No shading for me either. Perhaps the longer I observe this will become apparent?

 

Baz

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I am in the same boat as you Stu, I can see the phase very clearly. No shading for me either. Perhaps the longer I observe this will become apparent?

 

Baz

I guess that's the only option really! I don't regularly observe Venus for that long, probably because once I've seen the phase I don't see anything else. But..... if I spent more time, would my eye adjust more to the brightness and would I see more? Just don't know. I do have a variable polarising filter so really should give that a go, I normally just use a Neodymium filter.

[mikeDnight]

On 27/02/2020 at 16:18, R.frankish said:

That pic is about what I could see it as 

I'm struggling to understand why the image in your scope is tiny? Unless you're using a low power eyepiece Venus should easily show itself as a relatively large object. It might seem like a silly question, but are you sure you are looking at Venus and not a near by star? Is your finder scope accurately aligned? Attached is a sketch of Venus made using my 4" refractor at 118X, so you should be seeing a definite phase to the planet. The cloud detail is much more subtle visually, so don't worry if you don't see that at first.