colour on venus

[chazbear]

hi everyone

took my skywatcher 127 mak out last night to have a butchers at venus but it was'nt too good loads of colour:icon_scratch: .... could'nt really make out a planet disc very fuzzy...what is the reason for this ....then i turned scope to saturn with great success clear as a bell plus two moons and that was using a 10mm stock eyepiece and 2x ultima is there a way to get a better image

regards chazbear

[yeti monster]

Venus reflects so much light that it is very difficult to grab a focus, especially once the background sky has darkened. Perhaps a lunar filter might help to reduce the glare, but also Venus is very low, so there is a lot of atmospheric interference.

[brianb]

could'nt really make out a planet disc very fuzzy...what is the reason for this

Venus is still near superior conjunction - on the far side of the Sun therefore about as small as it gets. You were also very likely looking at it very low in the sky.

that was using a 10mm stock eyepiece and 2x ultima is there a way to get a better image

You're already using too much magnification for your scope. Try a bit less.

If you want a bigger image, sorry but you really do need to buy more aperture. Adding more magnification with your existing scope would simply be enlarging the diffraction blur which all scopes have, however perfect they are optically ... in unsteady seeing, less magnification usually works better, you do get used to picking details off tiny images. I rarely use more than x224 with my 11" SCT.

[John]

I find observing Venus with as much twighlight left in the sky as possible helps. Don't take any risks with the Sun though. As Brian says though, it's a tricky object and you are probably overpowering your scope which won't help.

[brantuk]

I had a great view of venus last year from the lakes. It was twilight (as Jahmanson rightly suggests) and the sun had just gone down over a hill. I could see the phase very clearly - looked just like a half moon (though much smaller in the e/p) and no glare at all despite it's normal naked eye look. Magnification was only 50x. Give twilight a try and you'll be delighted

[chazbear]

hi

thanks for all advice:headbang: i dont think i will be trying it out tonight cos its very overcast up in the north...as soon as it clears well give it ago

regards chazbear

[astroman001]

I viewed Venus and Mercury last evening. The reason for all the colours is atmospheric refraction. When viewing a bright object low down in tha atmosphere, the atmosphere causes the colours of the spectrum to be brought to a slightly different focal point in the telescope. This results in an orage/red and blue fringe to the object. When you viewed Saturn, it would have been higher up and less bright so the effect would not have been so noticable.

Best regards

Peter

[chazbear]

hi peter

many thanks for explanation..... when is venus going to be good for viewing...i mean highin the sky

regards chazbear