Planning for Venus/M45 conjunction on the 3rd of April.

[hotspur]

Just wondering what thoughts and plans other IIS members might have for this event,I have some thoughts-but they are such that it will have to be one or the other.

Stay at home and go for the observatory option,with scope-may be take off 103 mm and put 81 mm on the mount for a scope shot.Or option two-go to remote location,where the Grass tree is,and line up Venus on the top point of the middle grass tree spear.The scope view may look a tad uninteresting,I have no 5X naglar tube.

All of the above will go out the door if its raining again in S.E QLD,I really hope not,this is a seldom seem event.What are others hoping to achieve?

[JB80]

I really hope to get a chance to see this even if it is just from the yard at home I'll be more than happy.
However for Tuesday night the forecast is for snow.
Unbelievable, it was 20°c all last week.

[hotspur]

Snow!,hmm not likely to have that problem,but no doubt the weather will play and hand.Hope you get to see it and take some lovely images.Looks like no one else has many thoughts on this rare event.

[mikerr]

Chris, what time do you plan on taking the images? Looking at Stellarium the objects appear to be about 15 degrees above the horizon at 18:20 hours.

Michael.

[hotspur]

Good point Michael.

I just looked a star program,they will be very low when dark-might go to hill top location,and try 70-200 or 400 or even take small EQ mount with little Vixen ED 81

[mithrandir]

Chris, Venus sets at about 19:50. The later you can image, the further Venus will be into M45.

[hotspur]

Thanks Andrew-I was not aware of that,will keep that in mind,I just walked in,from a quick recon mission.I used the 70-200,the 17-55,and 10-22.

Here is a couple of quick JPEGS straight from camera-3930 is with 70-200 at 70 mm end.Should look good with Venus right in close on Teus.

[JB80]

Yeah, I have no idea about the weather over here. It's been all over the place, still fingers crossed for Tuesday.
Today is 50/50 with the clouds so like you I'll do a quick scout and see if I'll have to go for a drive or not, I hope not as I can't go to my normal spot due to road works but I think it's worth it as it is a rare event.

Nice pics too. :)

[luigi]

Chris I have the same dilemma! It's a small world!

Option "a" for me is to stay at my light polluted home and use the telescope, mount is aligned, venus is bright and maybe stacking several photos does something...

Option "b" for me is to take the car to a darker location, then setting up the mount will be difficult because I won't be able to align before the "event" as it takes place just after sunset, not enough stars! Then I can try some wide angle shots but my fear is that the wider angle shots will just show bright Venus and maybe a tiny dot near.

So I don't know what to do.

[mithrandir]

Luis, from here option "a" is not on. I have this 20m high tree directly in line. Option "b" isn't too bad because nautical twilight is at around 18:45 and a few bright stars are visible by then.

[JB80]

I had a look and I will be lucky to see this from home although I won't be able to have any tracking on it. I wasn't terribly impressed with the short exposure tests at 300mm and stacking them didn't help but I need more understanding of DSS really. 70mm seems OK but I think somewhere in the middle might be better.
I can't really escape the LP either, anyway I'll see what I can come up with.

[luigi]

A first approach:
http://www.luisargerich.com/venus-2012/h4d8fd7e#h4d8fd7e

80mm ED refractor and Canon 550D.
Mosaic of 2 photos, each panel is a stack of 10 photos, 30'' ISO400. The sky was blue and the signal was strong, so they have practically zero noise, the sky looks strange without noise!

[hotspur]

Look good Jarrod,Nice image Luigi-the blue is a lovely shade.BTW you have some cracker images there on your site:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[luigi]

Ty Chris! :thumbsup:

[gadieid]

Hi. I wrote about this event and luckily the weather is clear and Venus in the Pleiades (http://www.thevenustransit.com/2012/03/venus-and-pleiades.html) looks great. It is very easy to photograph. A regular zoom Lens 300mm a tripod and 2 sec exposure will do the job. Of course better equipment and tracking will yield even better results but I am happy with what I got.
Gadi
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cszZBQBuLzY/T3naUMmpurI/AAAAAAAADw0/bP6YedsT8X0/s400/venus+pleiades+4.jpg

[mithrandir]

Weather: 1, Venus and M45: 0

I could see Venus glowing through the light cloud but not stars.

[JB80]

Thanks Chris, I had the ISO too high so all my pics were riddled with noise. I was hoping to get a proper go but it was clouded out last night and not looking great for tonight.

I really like what you have done with that photo Luis, the blue does make it more interesting. :)

Good write up too gadield, your pic is similar to mine but I had less detail because the exposure wasn't as long. If I get another chance I'll try it a bit differently.

[hotspur]

Well,for once there was no clouds!

Had some fun looking and imaging this event this time.Here are two images from tonight 3rd of April.Only ver quick PP,I collected some darks so will clean up noise when time permits.

The second was taken when the objects only the thickness of a finger above horizon-so was not expected much.Thoughts of first welcomed.

Cheers Chris

[JB80]

Very average again tonight, I couldn't see Pleiades at all by eye as there was a thin layer of cloud and I couldn't get DSS to detect eough stars to stack what I did get.
Still here is what I got which is more than I could see visually.

[Liz]

Very good images there Chris, Jarrod and Gadi - love the palms with Venus Gadi. :thumbsup:

Try again tonight Luis - your images have been excellent. :thumbsup:

Clear skies to alllllllllllll. :cool::prey::sunny::D

[hotspur]

Thanks Liz,yes its worth putting in the effort,to get out an enjoy and try an image this event.Tonight,I collect many dozens of 3 second images using the ED81 on the mount,so when I get time,I'll stack them and the darks and hopefully have an image-I'll post a one frame twenty second rough shortly.

cheers Chris

[hotspur]

here we go Luigi.collected many images tonight,and did a quick and rough PP,to see if the focus and tracking worked.The data looks good,just need some time and patience to get the best out of it.Hope it clears up where you are-best wishes for a clear sky:thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

There's a couple of short movies of Venus and M45 this evening (2012-04-04) on SkyDrive (https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=628ad00a20e17fe3&resid=628AD00A20E17FE3%21125&parid=628AD00A20E17FE3%21105&authkey=%21AKNlaqlhifHnZSo) (If someone can explain how to just link the movies and not the folder I'd be interested.) Light cloud spoils it a bit.

If you look closely in one of them there is a satellite moving slowly upwards from M45.

30 frames, Sony a200, f4.5, 70mm, ISO400, combined in MovieMaker.