Venus spectacular.

[mikeDnight]

Spectacular isn't a term normally associated with views of Venus, but tonight's view was as close to spectacular as it gets, from my experience. 

Initially I wasn't going to observe at all, as there were high wind speeds and rapidly moving clouds, so I assumed very poor seeing. After noticing the sky had completely cleared and the winds had subdued, I rushed to set the refractor up in the observatory. After rolling back the roof, aiming the scope at Venus and switching on the drive, I decided to use the 3.4mm Vixen HR for speed of use rather than my usual binoviewer arrangement. Wow was it a great view! Initially a little agitated due to the scope and eyepiece being warm, everything soon settled down, and I had a most amazing view.

Initially, the most obvious feature was a large bright region south of the equator, that dipped for some distance into the shadow of the terminator. There appeared to be two other bright regions further north against the terminator. The usually subtle shadows extending from The terminator were unusually obvious tonight. The darkening around the southern cusp was noticeably darker than that around the north cusp.  There were also three small, though very bright, regions along the planet's limb, marked a,b & c in the sketch. I haven't had such a great view of Venus, or seen detail so easily for a long time. I hope others managed to see something of the cloud tops this evening too.

[paulastro]

Mike, that's a really great description, and a wonderful drawing.  Enough to warm the cockles of the hearts of all visual observers.  Thanks. 

[Paul M]

That's a phenomenal sketch.  You have a keen eye.  

I'm surprised at the weather in your area. We aren't a million miles away and it's been solid overcast nearly all day!

Indeed, we've had 2 nasty squalls pass through this evening. Rattling windows, hail and rain. 

[mikeDnight]

20 minutes ago, Paul M said:

That's a phenomenal sketch.  You have a keen eye.  

I'm surprised at the weather in your area. We aren't a million miles away and it's been solid overcast nearly all day!

Indeed, we've had 2 nasty squalls pass through this evening. Rattling windows, hail and rain. 

Thanks Paul,

Soon after I'd finished the sketch the clouds moved back in and it began raining again. Strong winds too! 

[JeremyS]

Hello Mike @mikeDnight,

do you happen to know if your eyes are more sensitive to the blue/UK end of the spectrum?

You will recall the pioneering work done by Alan Heath, Richard Baum and others on people's ability to see different features on the planets, esp Venus, depending on their spectral sensitivity. Alan recently wrote up a nice description of those experiments in the BAA Journal here.

[mikeDnight]

Hi Jeremy, 

I couldn't honestly say, as I wore what I thought was a green suit for two years, before my wife and others eventually convinced me it was petrol blue. Good job I'm a plumber and not an electrician! I've always been able to see the wraith like clouds on Venus visually with very little difficulty, but its all very subtle. The sketches are an exaggeration in intensity out of necessity really, just to differentiate the various regions, otherwise even the drawing would look blank. May be i should start using filters more often, as i might see more! Attached is the actual eyepiece sketch from last night. (I understand the scribblings even if no one else does!) 

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by mikeDnight

[mark81]

That is a serious observation right there! 

The detail you have been able to pick up is incredible when you consider the size of its appearance in the EP.  It just goes to show that with a lot of practice, a very keen eye, patience, a great scope and a night of good seeing (yes, that's a lot of things) great things can be achieved.

Another great drawing Mike

Mark