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Old 25-03-2017, 11:13 PM
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skysurfer
Dark sky rules !

skysurfer is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: 52N 6E (EU)
Posts: 1,152
Venus Inferior Conjunction

This weekend Venus is between the Earth and Sun, but doe to the inclination of the orbits, it does not come closer than 8 degrees from the Sun. This morning (8:40 UTC) I took a video by handholding (shaky image) the Canon Powershot S100 behind the eyepiece of my 80mm tabletop scope.

http://pix.skysurfer.eu/20170325-Ven...conjuction.mp4

It is a very nice thin crescent. Even binoculars (10x or more) reveal it. But watch out ! Put the scope (or binos) close to the edge of the shadow of a house / tree to allow blocking the possibility of inadvertently pointing at the Sun with permanent eye damage as a result.

Note for Southern Hemisphere observers: Venus is 'below' the Sun which makes it more difficult to block out the Sun. A covered balcony or a sunshade where you are in the shadow of the roof / canopy might help to block the Sun out of view.

But when precautions taken, it is a awesome view the thin crescent !
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