Venus

[Gy Stargazer]

Hello all.

Had a clear night last night and thought i'd try and image Venus.

Time was about 2100 UT and followed the planet dropping to the horizen.

My problem is that through eyepiece and camera all i was seeing was a brightspot. No disc and no features. Just wondering if for where Venus's position is should a colour filter be used to cut some of the light that the Sun's putting on to it.

The filters i have are Red, Yellow and Blue.

Any help would be great as i'd like to get my first image. :-)

Scot

[Pete Presland]

hi scot

i also imaged venus last night (what a stunning evening ) you should get a nice bright disc,but you will not get any surface detail.this will be the same through the eyepiece and webcam.

i diduse a mead lunar/planetary filter with the eyepiece which cut the glare down a little and a uv/it filter with the webcam as standard

pete

[Gy Stargazer]

As long as i know i'm not missing the surface detail i'm happy. lol.

I'll run the video i made through registax and see if i can clear it up a bit but after 2 hours this morning wasn't looking hopeful. :-(

Scot

[DarkerSky]

Surface detail on Venus is very elusive. On occasion you can detect subtle intensity differences in the cloud deck, mainly near the terminator. Using a red filter can help bring it out visually.

[Gy Stargazer]

Will try a red filter or a moon glare filter on my next attempt and see if things are better.

If Venus is this hard i'd shudder to think what troubles Mercury will be. lol.

Scot

[Pete Presland]

i did mercury as well,just because its so well placed to say it wasnt very impressive is a under statement.but i could just make out a crescent shape and i have not put anything through registax yet.

pete