Venus at mid-day, a challenging target!

Dave,

Congrats on a wonderful accomplishment. Your comment about difficulty in focusing during the day brought a great wide grin to my face for the simple reason that it is 100% accurate and something which I have experienced as well.

However, use the filtered sun and any small sunspot as a guide. If there are no sunspots, then use the limb of the sun as a guide.

Now, for something similar but with a twist, I kindly direct you to www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Occult-2004-05-21D.htm where I imaged the daytime occultation of Venus during the day and under very similar conditions as you describe above.

Clear skies to you and many pleasant and similar experiences.

Anthony.

Dave,

ESA are looking for amateur astronomers to image Jupiter at present in conjunction with the Venus Express project. check out the details on sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38833 for details. So anyone that rises early and is a keen asto imager has a chance to contribute to science in a serious way here.

Enquiries on Taking Observations:
Detlef Koschny
Tel: +31 71 565 4828
Email: Detlef.Koschny@esa.int

I believe Deirdre Kelleghan mentioned this in a previous post, but Astronomy Magazine also mention it in this months magazine.

Nice shot - must have been tough! :shock:

I doubt if this image would be worth anything in that sense John, I put it up more to show what it might look like through the scope, If I'm free tomorrow afternoon, I might go for a better shot if the sky is clear.

Maybe not that one, but they are looking for images at specific times, when Express is otherwise occupied.

It might be worth contacting them to find out what they are looking for.

Typical!, the clouds have just rolled in, they'll be no venus viewing today.

Thats a shame Dave - its clear blue skies all over down here, despite the nice breeze. But I guess that wind is what's brining in the cloud.

By the way, I like your image here of Venus. It is not often that we get a chance to visually see a daytime planet like this. Nice shot!

Also Dave, did you have your scope running from the previous night in order for the goto to be accurate in locating Venus? Also, if knowing where to look, but not being able to visibly see it (I think even -4 magnitude is too faint for daytime!), can you do a SMALL sweep of that area of sky with eye at the eyepiece?

Seanie.