Venus Dec 2008 - Mar 2009

[Ant]

I've managed to get out a few times over the last few months... Venus, it has to be said, is getting harder now every day.

It is lower in the sky one day to the next. But it is still high enough to catch if the clouds let you...

Decided to set up tonight regardless of the 100% clouds as the forcast said that it would clear between 6 and 9.

Almost bang on time, it cleared for about 15 minutes Managed to get a couple of AVI's 1 x 5,000 and 1 x 10,000 frames before the clouds rolled back in.

Strangly the 5000 Frame AVI was much better quality than the 10K one...

Seeing that since the 21st December Venus has increased in size from 19" to 54" today I thought that I would put my images side by side and see what they looked like...

Well here they are... I'm still hoping for another go at Venus, but a week and thats it really - certainly from my location.

Hope you like.

ant

[CELESCOPE]

Thats lovely Ant, nice to see it set out this way , done something like that myself

Great stuff mate

Rog:)

[barkis]

That's an exquisite set of sequential images of the planets approach to inferior conjunction Ant.

Put those in the post to S@N mate, you have a good chance of succeeding with those.

Ron.

Edited March 18, 2009 by barkis

[Imahumanbeing]

Fantastic! Excellent Ant!

[Doc]

Wow Ant you have been busy.

Fantastic set of images would love to do this myself.

[rawhead]

Superb montage

What amazes me is Venus is still so bright when there's hardly any of it left...

Cheers

Jon

[Dave]

Excellent composition.

[Sam]

Great job Ant, really shows the transition in phase and the big size difference.

Sam

[Ant]

Cheers Guys.

I have to say that Venus is getting really hard to image now. It's like looking through boiling water, focusing has become a "best Guess"

I read in another thread that the phase is clearly visible in 8 x 50 bino's... Venus is big, especially compared to back in December. I'm not going to work it out, but I bet there isn't much difference in illuminated area betwee now and December. Infact re-looking at the images I would say that there is much more planet illuminated now than in December.

The exposure times for te AVI for the images taken yesterday was 1/1000 second...

Looking at the weather I think I'll get another chance later in the week.

Who's SN , Ron?

Cheer again for the comments!

Ant

[Dave Smith]

That's brilliant Ant. I also tried last night but my scope played up (GPS keeps turning off) and only managed to eyeball it. Looks hopeful this evening.

Dave

[legion48]

Great montage there Ant.

[dweller25]

X L ant !!

[Ant]

Sorry to bring this thread back, but it's better to add to this thread than start another one really...

Added today's Venus to the sequence.

Hope you like.

Ant

[Jaffa007]

Thanks for the update.

[beamish]

a fantastic set of images Ant !!

Karlo

[Kai]

Kewl Ant , i like that set of images ,very nice

[jgs001]

Very nice set Ant, the montage is really good

[Psychobilly]

Cracking set of images and very nicely presented..

I think by "SN" Ron is suggesting that you send them to Sky at Night Mag... although other astronomy magazines are available...

Billy...

[Ant]

Cheers for the comments guys, not sure it's magazine quality though.

I'm really hoping to get another go tonight and maybe tomorrow.

Ant

[rawhead]

Cheers for the comments guys, not sure it's magazine quality though.

I'm really hoping to get another go tonight and maybe tomorrow.

Ant

Looks like it will be clear till the end of the week

Looking forward to seeing who gets the smallest cresent

(My money's on Ant )

[Ant]

Decided to go into work for 6am this morning so that I could get home early enough to get another Venus image!

So I'm really chuffed to get this and as Jon said maybe I'll have another chance tomorrow (Friday's out) and maybe Saturday as well.

Tonights addition is only a 3.96% phase, and it's started getting fainter (only just) as well.

Well Venus finally goes, it's going to be like saying good bye to an old friend.

Let me know when you've had enough

Cheers

Ant

[barkis]

Yep!, I meant Sky at Night magazine. I've edited my first post.

I certainly think it's mag. material Ant. Adding the latest image, and possibly the one coming up shows a nice change in the phase of the planet as it heads toward Inferior Conjunction.

There's nowt wrong with the Images that should deter you, and Impending IC adds a great interest for Magazine readers.

Gwaan, Gwaan, get it it sent in, What's to lose?.

Ron.

[philsail1]

Yes, that a lovely way to display Venus!

Regards,

philsail1

[themos]

Keep them coming, this does look great!

[Ant]

Managed to get out myself.

Let work at 5:30, got through the door at 6:10.

Was imaging Venus at 6:25.

This image (the last one in this sequence) was taken at 6:37pm. Venus was only 8 degree's above the horizon and I think I'll only have one more evening before it gets lost in my west horizon.

Venus is now 58" in size, magnitude -4.20 and the phase is only 2.86%... very thin indeed!

Cheers

Ant