Venus under exceptional seeing (7/7/23)

[Kon]

Although I said my Venus UV season is over, I could not resist a quick capture under the summer sun yesterday afternoon. To my surprise the seeing was amazing as if the atmosphere had disappeared; it held focus and no boiling effect. Much better than the 3+4 June captures. Venus has really increased in size but the surface area is much smaller. It seems that its surface is covered in clouds. 8" Dob, manual, asi462mm, Astromania UV and IR filters, 2.5x TV powermate (I wish I had a bigger powermate as I could have easily gone to f20; I am currently at f15). False colour and resized 150%.

[Nik271]

This one is very beautiful, as if from orbit, well done, Kon! 

Yesterday evening was very lucky indeed, there were moments of great seeing. I had a look at Venus at about 8pm and it was still quite steady. Visually I didn't see clouds but the horns did seem brighter than the rest of the crescent. Later at 10pm I got another lucky seeing spell with Antares. The strange thing was the seeing deteriorated rapidly after that in the space of just 10 minutes. Carpe diem as they say...

Edited July 8, 2023 by Nik271

[Kon]

15 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

This one is very beautiful, as if from orbit, well done, Kon! 

Yesterday evening was very lucky indeed, there were moments of great seeing. I had a look at Venus at about 8pm and it was still quite steady. Visually I didn't see clouds but the horns did seem brighter than the rest of the crescent. Later at 10pm I got another lucky seeing spell with Antares. The strange thing was the seeing deteriorated rapidly after that in the space of just 10 minutes. Carpe diem as they say...

Thanks Nik.

I am glad you had a good visual session. I also took a look at the eyepiece as the kids were very kin to look at it and it easily took the magnification; the bright limbs were apparent. They both said 'that's the moon'. The crescent and larger size is obvious at the finderscope too.

Unfortunately the weather deteriorated quickly as I got up at 3am to image Saturn and it was all cloudy and in typical British weather fashion it's pouring with rain now.

[maw lod qan]

Excellent seeing it like this, as a crescent!

Well done on the imaging and processing!

[Kon]

11 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

Excellent seeing it like this, as a crescent!

Well done on the imaging and processing!

Thanks. Very pleased with the result. I wish we had seeing conditions like this more often.

[neil phillips]

What's also quite remarkable is its often more difficult to get detail with a reduced phase. But that's not happening here. What detail can be seen  is fully on show. Just wondaful. Congrats on a superb capture

I have a feeling the seeing was at its best at this point. Before the temperature dropped and warmer air started mixing with cooler air.  

[Pete Presland]

Excellent image, very impressive details visible there. 

[Kon]

56 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

What's also quite remarkable is its often more difficult to get detail with a reduced phase. But that's not happening here. What detail can be seen  is fully on show. Just wondaful. Congrats on a superb capture

I have a feeling the seeing was at its best at this point. Before the temperature dropped and warmer air started mixing with cooler air.  

Thanks Neil. I hardly had to push the sharpening on this one. It's the reason I go for daylight imaging, a lot more stable.

As we said in our messaging earlier, I thought Saturn would have been amazing but got up to clouds and your Saturn image confirmed that seeing was past it's best.

[neil phillips]

Just now, Kon said:

Thanks Neil. I hardly had to push the sharpening on this one. It's the reason I go for daylight imaging, a lot more stable.

As we said in our messaging earlier, I thought Saturn would have been amazing but got up to clouds and your Saturn image confirmed that seeing was past it's best.

All of the above See my short Saturn example showing the de focus effect. I know you also had this problem last year. So far its been a good seeing killer for me. It will change. The good thing is Jupiter will enter cooler weather high up 

Edited July 8, 2023 by neil phillips

[Kon]

7 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

All of the above See my short Saturn example showing the de focus effect. I know you also had this problem last year. So far its been a good seeing killer for me. It will change. The good thing is Jupiter will enter cooler weather high up 

We are fighting with the elements in UK but as we always say, good fun being out. Looking forward to Jupiter.

[Albir phil]

Great image probably the best I've seen, yes it does look like it's from orbit.Well done👏🎊

[orion25]

Simply brilliant, Kon! You're using that Astromania filter to the hilt!

Regards,

Reggie🤩

[Kon]

38 minutes ago, Albir phil said:

Great image probably the best I've seen, yes it does look like it's from orbit.Well done👏🎊

Thanks. That stable seeing really helped.

[Kon]

26 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Simply brilliant, Kon! You're using that Astromania filter to the hilt!

Regards,

Reggie🤩

Thanks Reggie. I am surprised how well this cheap filter is performing in combination with the mono camera.

[si@nite]

Wonderful shot well done!

[Space Cowboy]

Don't know how I missed this post. Fabulous capture Kostas! 

[Ibbo!]

Lovely presentation of your ir/ur images in AN this month.

[Kon]

22 minutes ago, Ibbo! said:

Lovely presentation of your ir/ur images in AN this month.

Yes very pleased with that. I got it in in two more magazines so very happy. I need to find time to post it here.

[Maurizio83]

Outstanding image! 😮