At dusk on December 28th, 2008, you can not help but look into the southwestern sky and see the evening star known as Venus. Venus, our 2nd planet from the sun is one of four terrestrial or rocky planets. Venus is the closest planet to Earth at its nearest approach of 45 million km. Venus is about 108 million km from the sun and is about the size of Earth.
The photo above is unfortunately my best effort so far. This image was the best exposure after several attempts of shooting 10 exposures or more and trying to stack them into a decent picture. This particular image was taken using a 10mm eyepiece. The problems are many: Poor atmospheric conditions and more likely, Venus is reflecting too much light from the sun back to my 10" mirror, thus causing an aberration or star burst effect. After reading further, I am under the impression, much like Mercury, Venus is best viewed and photographed at dusk or even before dusk while there is still light out. I will attempt to photograph Venus again under better conditions. A planetary filter may help the situation as well.
The view of Venus through a 10mm eyepiece is better than what was photographed. Much like our moon, Venus also exhibits phases based on the sun and our geometrical view. During this viewing, Venus was a visible half crescent. Because Venus is so bright, one can not make out any distinguishing features other than a cream color.
I look forward to visiting this planet again and with more knowledge in hand, achieve better photographic results.
The photo above is unfortunately my best effort so far. This image was the best exposure after several attempts of shooting 10 exposures or more and trying to stack them into a decent picture. This particular image was taken using a 10mm eyepiece. The problems are many: Poor atmospheric conditions and more likely, Venus is reflecting too much light from the sun back to my 10" mirror, thus causing an aberration or star burst effect. After reading further, I am under the impression, much like Mercury, Venus is best viewed and photographed at dusk or even before dusk while there is still light out. I will attempt to photograph Venus again under better conditions. A planetary filter may help the situation as well.
The view of Venus through a 10mm eyepiece is better than what was photographed. Much like our moon, Venus also exhibits phases based on the sun and our geometrical view. During this viewing, Venus was a visible half crescent. Because Venus is so bright, one can not make out any distinguishing features other than a cream color.
I look forward to visiting this planet again and with more knowledge in hand, achieve better photographic results.
No comments:
Post a Comment