Another Venus.......but with a twist!

[EA2007]

I put the 'with a twist' bit on so you would look ha ha:

Anyway, here's Venus, before you look and go "ah its....okay" remember that this was taken afocally in a bedroom with the window open, quite early in the evening (obviously, but it affects contrast!) and that because my newt. doesn't focus with an slr then i had to remove the enrtire crayford (apart from the screwed on bit) and then clamp it onto the ota with my hands, without any tracking..........not bad

(click to enlarge)

Spec: Olympus E-400, 400iso, 1/4 sec.

[barkis]

A good effort out of the bedroom window, you must have needed two pair of hands.

Looks like two stars captured too. The brighter one to the top right could be HIPO11594, and the left fainter one HIP115945.

From Starry Night at around 1900hrs last night.

Ron.

[EA2007]

Cheers,

However, I think the 'stars' are just hot pixels......the camera has some issues.

[Bigwings]

20 out of 10 for effort

Do you always do things the hard way? If your a parent there could be an interesting story.

[EA2007]

Thanks for that comment!

I did have a goto scope but i sold it last year....so now I have a dob, but it just doesn't seem to focus i.e. the focal point is very close to the OTA, hence me having to remove most of the crayford.

As for the inside part...well I couldn't be bothered lugging the whole thing downstairs and outside, there was some condenstaion on the mirror with this shot, but not much. The worst part was trying to keep the camera steady when the shutter released, the first few shots were wobbly plus I estimated that I was still off focus by about 1mm.

It was quite lucky that earlier on in the day I had collimated the scope (i have had it for nearly 3 years and not done it until now...bad astronomy!). Man was the primary mirror out of alignment or what, here's Venus before collimation from a few nights ago:

(click to enlarge)