Venus cloud patterns - my best capture so far

[lukebl]

I captured some interesting cloud detail on Venus this evening, 27th February 2020. The cloud formations clearly change quite rapidly as they rotate around the planet every four days. Every night shows quite different detail. Well worth watching if you have a UV filter.

Captured with Baader UV and IR filters, c. 10,000 frames for each channel. IR to Red, UV to Blue channels. Green channel made from 50% UV and 50% IR . 3x Televue Barlow, Omegon RC8 (effective focal length 4800) and a ZWO ASI 290MM Mini Mono camera.

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by lukebl

[JamesF]

That's outstanding.  Well done.

James

[Sunshine]

Amazing cloud detail!  

[Ibbo!]

Cracking stuff.

[Alan White]

I had no idea Venus had clouds, it's always so bright when observed.
Great image and you learn something every day 👍

[Pete Presland]

Excellent image again Luke, good to have other images to compare details with my own.

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, lukebl said:

I captured some interesting cloud detail on Venus this evening, 27th February 2020. The cloud formations clearly change quite rapidly as they rotate around the planet every four days. Every night shows quite different detail. Well worth watching if you have a UV filter.

Captured with Baader UV and IR filters, c. 10,000 frames for each channel. IR to Red, UV to Blue channels. Green channel made from 50% UV and 50% IR . 3x Televue Barlow, Omegon RC8 (effective focal length 4800) and a ZWO ASI 290MM Mini Mono camera.

 

This is seriously impressive stuff Luke. Zooming in on your image reveals incredibly intricate detail. I'm curious to know if there is any correlation between the more intricate cloud detail and the surface features below? It's great to see this level of detail in an image and I'm pretty sure it will inspire some imagers at least to view Venus as a much more worthy target that it may first appear to be. I have been observing Venus visually for many years, and I've been rewarded with many very detailed though subtle views of Venus cloud tops, which are at the limit of discernability. Your images are a massive breath of fresh air to a Venus observer such as myself. Thankyou so much for posting!

 

[CraigT82]

Superb!! Great work 👍👍

[lukebl]

12 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

This is seriously impressive stuff Luke. Zooming in on your image reveals incredibly intricate detail. I'm curious to know if there is any correlation between the more intricate cloud detail and the surface features below? It's great to see this level of detail in an image and I'm pretty sure it will inspire some imagers at least to view Venus as a much more worthy target that it may first appear to be. I have been observing Venus visually for many years, and I've been rewarded with many very detailed though subtle views of Venus cloud tops, which are at the limit of discernability. Your images are a massive breath of fresh air to a Venus observer such as myself. Thankyou so much for posting!

Thanks for that.

Yes, with the right filters Venus is well worth observing and has surprisingly been sorely neglected. I have surprised myself at the level of detail you can make out with relatively modest equipment (admittedly the Baader U-Venus filter isn't cheap). It's also gratifying that Pete Presland's images taken at the same time confirm the same features, so they're clearly real and not imaging artifacts.