Venus image, this eveing 7pm

Wow, you really got a keeper there Dave. Super shot!

Great img Dave especially since there's no filters used. I've found it impossible to img Venus without an IR filter to kill the seeing effects.

Frank what I recomend is a Schuler UV filter and Schuler IR78 filter. Both can be got from www.astrovid.com .



Dave Gradwell

Actually Dave.
On second inspection of the shot, I have to say it's one of the best I've seen
of your Venus bunch.
The image is very sharp for such a large scale.
The graduation of the shading from terminator to disk edge is very even
and natural looking.
(especially noticeable on the top and bottom of the phase where it
it 'dips' round the planet)

There is a temptation sometimes for one to over enhance the contrast or
levels to sharpen the phase or disk edge and remove bad seeing.
I believe from this shot not a lot of that was done which leads me to
guess that the fact you shot this in daylight has helped with the capture
(plus it's higher and less A.D.)

I would love to see your effort at getting some cloud detail!

Well done again.

I'm so afraid of over processing an image that I often under process it.
Its real easy to get a razor sharp edge on Venus using registax, but then the rest of the image goes to pot.
From now on in this apparition I'll be imaging the planet in daytime, just like 3 years ago.
i really was surprised at how clearly visible it was to the naked eye in daytime..
Dave G, I made a slight mistake about the filters, I did use an IR cut off filter, its on the toucam permanently, so much so that I think of it as part of the camera at this stage.

The image is very sharp for such a large scale.

I believe from this shot not a lot of that was done which leads me to
guess that the fact you shot this in daylight has helped with the capture
(plus it's higher and less A.D.)

Frank,
When the conditions are right, the images through the 12" are excellent, but one thing it is very susceptible to is bad seeing, it can cripple a scope of this aperture, so I figured that Venus been high in the sky would have a better image then low down, despite the boiling of the atmosphere caused by the Sun. I have found this to be the case alot of the time when observing in daytime.