Venus yesterday evening

[Siegfried1969]

My impression of Venus with the violet Wratten #47 filter.

I am however not sure what I have seen. The dark areas should not be where I have seen them. Its a bit like seeing canals on Mars I think.

Will need some more observations but its a difficult object. Low in the sky. Unstable sky's and bad transparency. When I looked at Jupiter who was just above it, I could barely see the two major cloud bands.

[Kon]

That's a great sketch and it looks you may have picked some of the clouds. In my recent Venus imaging post in UV, I could see similar structures but the darker areas seem inverted in yours. 

[Siegfried1969]

On 01/03/2023 at 10:50, Kon said:

That's a great sketch and it looks you may have picked some of the clouds. In my recent Venus imaging post in UV, I could see similar structures but the darker areas seem inverted in yours. 

Thanks a lot and thanks for the picture ! it is great to see a reference.

Last night I spend another hour observing venus. Now with different filter combinations and drawing the features I see recurring and I am sure they are there. Venus is not an easy object to observe and I think that my telescope is a bit too small to work with a #47 violet filter. Especially with turbulent skies. An 8 or 10 inch would have got better results. With this small telescope I got very good results with a #15 yellow + #80A lightblue. With blue alone I could not see anything. 

here is the new drawing:

 

 

[Kon]

Great observations. Keep an eye on the planetary imaging section, where some of us are pursuing UV clouds so it may help you with the visual.

[mikeDnight]

4 hours ago, Siegfried1969 said:

Thanks a lot and thanks for the picture ! it is great to see a reference.

Last night I spend another hour observing venus. Now with different filter combinations and drawing the features I see recurring and I am sure they are there. Venus is not an easy object to observe and I think that my telescope is a bit too small to work with a #47 violet filter. Especially with turbulent skies. An 8 or 10 inch would have got better results. With this small telescope I got very good results with a #15 yellow + #80A lightblue. With blue alone I could not see anything. 

here is the new drawing:

 

 

I like your sketches Siegfried and I believe they represent genuine cloudtop detail. I really love observing Venus and am generally able to see cloud detail with relative ease. It can be a struggle at the moment as the planet is still relatively small, but as it grows in its apparent size as it moves towards its crescent phase, the subtle detail may become easier to discern. Sometimes I observe the planet in daylight or twilight, which reduces the brilliance and makes detecting the subtle cloud detail easier.  Something that may help you in your observation of this difficult planet is to take note of the polar brightness, limb brightness, and particularly any bright spots along the terminator. Sometimes the bright spots appear to bite into the terminator, which indicates a high cloud on the planet. Alongside the bright areas you'll invariably see subtle shading extending in a Y formation along the equator and shading around the bright polar cloud too. I've attached a sketch as seen through a 4" refractor from some time ago just to illustrate, hope you don't mind. ☺

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by mikeDnight

[Siegfried1969]

On 03/03/2023 at 18:38, mikeDnight said:

I like your sketches Siegfried and I believe they represent genuine cloudtop detail.

That is a great post Mike ! Thank you so much. That sketch is fabulous. Your post will definitely help me to make more accurate observations of venus, which I plan to do this year. I heard that 2023 will be a good year for observing venus due to its maximal distance to the sun.