Venus, Jupiter, Saturn images

Hi All,
I went out last night to do a bit of planet watching and took a few pics while there, the seeing wasn't good and Saturn is at the limits of the camera at the image scale I use so it was very grainy and is put in here for completeness only, I would not put up such an image on its own normally, but this is probabily the last time I'm going to image it until next year.
Venus is getting bigger by the week and its phase is reducing fast. It's one to keep an eye on over the next 4 or so weeks.
I have a 50 minute window between houses to catch Jupiter, it skims along roof tops as seen from my location so I'm never going to get a clear image of it this year so I reckon this is about as good as I'm gonna get, given the 15 degrees elevation. Europa is also visible in the image. The GRS is on the far side of the planet, I had to reduce its image scale to get rid of the graininess. A more high resolution camera would do alot better job.


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They were all taken using the 12" LX200 + toucam+IR blocking filter + 2x barlow and processed in registax.
Comments, good and bad are welcome. Enjoy.

You missed out on Mercury, it will be feeling discriminated against :lol:

Lovely set of images Dave. Venus still looks a little more than 50% phase but I think it is past its eastern elongation? Maybe I am wrong on that???

Venus still looks a little more than 50% phase but I think it is past its eastern elongation? Maybe I am wrong on that???

The phase is'nt 50% yet.


Thats a nice set there Dave.
Yes Venus is getting noticably bigger alright.
As for Jupiter, It's such a shame its so low.
I'd nearly prefer it not to rise at all!
Nice capture of the moon.

Bye-bye Saturn eh!?
Well, it was good while it lasted and I am actually one
who is happy we are seeng the rings close in.
It's a different thing than the norm and the images we will get
will be special in thier own right.

Hurry up and rise Mars!!

Greatest elongation of Venus is on the 7th June, but, the ecliptic is starting to flatten out so Venus is getting lower in the sky since May 24th and is accelerating. It will be making a seriously rapid plunge towards the sun in July and will be difficult to catch by mid august.

I have to say Im disappointed at the images of Saturn, at the image scale, the planet is too faint for the webcam to get a good image, I can reduce the image by taking out the barlow and get a brighter image but it is too small IMHO.
If only Jupiter was higher, it would be a fantastic webcam object.

I went too late top get Mercury, it would have been great to get 4 planets on one night. Its not that hard once you have a clear view of it in the sky.
I wouldn't get too carried away with Mars, its a small planet and is one of the hardest planets to get detail using the webcam. Bahh humbug, I think the clouds are getting to me :lol:

it would have been great to get 4 planets on one night. Its not that hard once you have a clear view of it in the sky.

I had the chance in Portugal!
but I decided to just take it in visually.
eg, the screenshots here..

www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic....lar+system+one+night


as for Mars...
and detail?....
who knows..?

Maybe when I get my C14 & SKYnyx 2.0M.......hmmm!?

Very nice stuff Dave!!