Wonderful picture of Orbit of Venus

Paul,

Seeing it is a piece of cake! I observed and imaged it in mid-January when it was just under 0.9% .... in fact it was clearly visible in my TeleVue Pronto as well during midday and only 3-4 degrees away from the sun.

If you would like I can upload my image of Venus from mid-January.

Anthony,

That's astonishing! I just assumed you'd need at least 3+ % of Venus's disk illuminated before you'd have a chance of making it out. I suppose it's down to the very high reflectivity of the planet's clouds that makes it so readily visible at such extremely low phases.

And yes, I'd love to see the image!

Paul,

Please check out the message with time stamp "Posted: 24 Jan 2006 15:01" at www.astrovox.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16...amp;highlight=#16117 .

I do agree that the high albedo makes a dramatic difference.

Anthony.

Paul,

Please check out the message with time stamp "Posted: 24 Jan 2006 15:01" at www.astrovox.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16...amp;highlight=#16117 .

I do agree that the high albedo makes a dramatic difference.

Anthony.

Anthony,

That's a lovely image, but to my untrained eye the phase in the image appears to be a lot more than 0.9% (I would have guessed around 5%). Perhaps this is again due to the brilliance of the illuminated crescent spilling over into the night side in the image. Did the crescent appear more slender in the eyepiece?

BTW, I also really liked all those lovely Greek letters on the other forum!

BTW, I also really liked all those lovely Greek letters on the other forum!

Like the user name too! Aristarchus ... he he he!

Paul,

Please check out the message with time stamp "Posted: 24 Jan 2006 15:01" at www.astrovox.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16...amp;highlight=#16117 .

I do agree that the high albedo makes a dramatic difference.

Anthony.

Anthony,

That's a lovely image, but to my untrained eye the phase in the image appears to be a lot more than 0.9% (I would have guessed around 5%). Perhaps this is again due to the brilliance of the illuminated crescent spilling over into the night side in the image. Did the crescent appear more slender in the eyepiece?

Paul,

As I note in the accompanying text, I blew it by slightly overexposing the sequence of images which helped inflate the size of the crescent. My intention was to pursue this imaging a few days earlier and, more specifically at oppposition, so as to capture the complete annulus ("Horns of Venus") but the weather did me in.

To this end, I apologize for the overexposure ....

The view through my Pronto (naked-eye) and which was piggy-backed on the AP160 was stunning ... the crescent was obviously very thin but readily visible and bright and this is something which was applicable from 7:08 (start of the session) until midday (11:45) when I took my final glimpses and videos prior to packing it in.

BTW, I also really liked all those lovely Greek letters on the other forum!

Oops, I forgot to remind you that you specify a Greek font when visiting the web page. Anyway, I hope there was enough info for you to extract the imaging train and consequent AVI (1800 frames total, 150 subselected) using an AP160 + TeleVue 2X Barlow + Baader IR-Pass + Baader Red Long Pass.

Anthony.

BTW, I also really liked all those lovely Greek letters on the other forum!

Like the user name too! Aristarchus ... he he he!