High power Venus

[mikeDnight]

Mrs Dnight sent me out to play early last night, while the Sun was still above the horizon, so play I did!  Venus on the previous night of the 5th had caught my attention, and last night, 6th, having much better stability allowed me to really push my scope into the realms of the unbelievable.  Over time, I felt compelled on more than one occasion to check which eyepiece I was using as the view was so good. I can't remember the exact words I muttered to myself and its probably not something I couldn't write here, but mutter I did. What a great experience to observe Venus under such good conditions and with such a nice scope and eyepiece. 

[Saganite]

19 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Mrs Dnight sent me out to play early last night, while the Sun was still above the horizon, so play I did!  Venus on the previous night of the 5th had caught my attention, and last night, 6th, having much better stability allowed me to really push my scope into the realms of the unbelievable.  Over time, I felt compelled on more than one occasion to check which eyepiece I was using as the view was so good. I can't remember the exact words I muttered to myself and its probably not something I couldn't write here, but mutter I did. What a great experience to observe Venus under such good conditions and with such a nice scope and eyepiece. 

Lovely Mike. I tried Venus last evening but caught it fairly low above a row of houses and it was not good, very turbulent.

But, later I did get  a 476x lovely split of Epsilon Bootes, with excellent diffraction patterns, using my 5" f15.

[mikeDnight]

33 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Lovely Mike. I tried Venus last evening but caught it fairly low above a row of houses and it was not good, very turbulent.

But, later I did get  a 476x lovely split of Epsilon Bootes, with excellent diffraction patterns, using my 5" f15.

I ended my observing last night with a few of rich field views, then M13 followed by a few pretty doubles. I really don't know why I don't spend more time on double stars? They are amazing!

[John]

Great report and sketches Mike

So what is thought to cause the cusp brightening effect ?

 

[mikeDnight]

It can only be either the suns light from behind the planet as its phase gets thinner, or light catching a raised cloud layer I suppose? It will be interesting to see if it continues more along the north than the south. It can be seen at much lower power by the way, I was just messing around when I used such silly high power.

[Alan White]

Very interesting report Mike, the detail keeps coming.

I tried to observe on the 5th, but local conditions would not support higher magnification and I was thwarted for once.
Last night was a plan to observe, but it is my virtual astro club night and I over ran so no observing done sadly.

All I can say is 333x was a wow, but 500x that's amazing, now wonder you were muttering unmutterables!

[JeremyS]

500x @mikeDnight? That's not even trying 🙂

 

[mikeDnight]

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

500x @mikeDnight? That's not even trying 🙂

 

800X on the cusp Jeremy. If I'm going to be daft, I might as well do it in style!

[BRADLEY 1953]

Great sketches Mike, I particularly like the close up of the cusp extension.   PS.  As Mrs Dnight noticed your new telescope yet !   Cheers  Chris.

[mikeDnight]

13 hours ago, BRADLEY 1953 said:

Great sketches Mike, I particularly like the close up of the cusp extension.   PS.  As Mrs Dnight noticed your new telescope yet !   Cheers  Chris.

  No Chris, she hasn't!  In fact yesterday afternoon a little incident occured after my son's thought it would be funny to remove my tube assembly from its mount in the dining room.  They purposely engaged me in pointless conversation, which in itself lead me to believe they were up to no good. Eventually they both cracked up laughing as they pointed to the DX mount standing there with an empty coke bottle in the Tak tube clamp, and stating I'd "make a rubbish detective!"

  I severely threatened their lives for touching my scope, but they are both bigger than me and weren't worried in the slightest by my threat. When I retrieved the scope from its hiding place, Chrissy my wife came to see what the commotion and hysterical laughter was all about. I walked right past her while carrying the new scope and she didn't notice any difference. Instead she came to my defence and laid the law down to the lad's. They are scared of their mum!   So it's official - I've got away with it!!  I think!