Venus - Views below expectations

[Stu Ward]

I've struggled to get a decent view of Venus, as i get home quite late and its already very low in the sky.

I know that it is permanently cloud covered. but being close to Earth relatively speaking i thought it may be a reasonable viewing experience

However on the few occasions that i have got to take a glance it has looked like nothing more than a foggy star, with a cross of light through the eyepiece

My 8" Dob is collimated and gives excellent views of Deep Sky objects, Saturn looks crisp as anything too

Is Venus really so disappointing, Mars was a big letdown too

Thanks

Stu

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Stu Ward

I've struggled to get a decent view of Venus, as i get home quite late and its already very low in the sky.

I know that it is permanently cloud covered. but being close to Earth relatively speaking i thought it may be a reasonable viewing experience

However on the few occasions that i have got to take a glance it has looked like nothing more than a foggy star, with a cross of light through the eyepiece

My 8" Dob is collimated and gives excellent views of Deep Sky objects, Saturn looks crisp as anything too

Is Venus really so disappointing, Mars was a big letdown too

Thanks

Stu

Stu, because Venus is normally low in the sky, and even more so it seems as you get home is effected by atmospherice conditions.
As you say it is covered by cloud,but under favourable conditions does show phases like the Moon.
Use a blue, orange or even a Moon filter to cut down on the scintilation
and you will get a better view.
Mars is past it's best of this apparition so is not very good for small telescopes.

[alistairsam]

Originally Posted by Stu Ward

My 8" Dob is collimated and gives excellent views of Deep Sky objects, Saturn looks crisp as anything too

Is Venus really so disappointing, Mars was a big letdown too

Thanks

Stu

Hi,
I've got an 8" reflector as well, but have'nt really seen many DSO's.
can you tell me what all you've seen with your scope, seen any galaxies, and what eyepieces you used to view saturn .

I tried saturn with a 15mm with and without a barlow, but was'nt very clear. could be my eyepieces which are the standard plossl's.

[Stu Ward]

A 15mm should be fine for Saturn, if the atmospheric conditions are good.

Best thing to do is to look at the monthly targets posted by mental4astro i think, he selects a few objects to look at based on whats good in the sky for the month

But i have been mostly observings Globulars and Open Clusters.
I have seen galaxies in good viewing dark skies, but they are faint fuzzies

The LMC and SMC are a treat in dark skies
As is Eta Carinae


Stu

[Rob_K]

Venus can be quite an 'ordinary' sight to many people in its gibbous phases (a brilliant ball), but wait till it goes to crescent phase and gets thinner and thinner and bigger and BIGGER!!

One of the most stunning sights in the sky IMO. It gets quite low at these times though as it nears the Sun, but the reward for effort is outstanding!

Cheers -

[pgc hunter]

Mars has been an epic fail this season, thanks to a poorest of poor opposition at 14" diameter AND at a northerly declination in Taurus and Gemini. IN July 2018 it'll reach 24" diameter..and will be directly overhead in Sagittarius

Venus isn't much fun after sunset either, it's very low atm and seeing is invariably poor.

[Stu Ward]

I was going to take a photo of what I saw, but never got round to it

The fact that i saw such a small disc surprised me, and also the cross hair affect (sorry don't know the real term) made me think i was doing something wrong or something wrong with the telescope.
I thought that maybe the cross hair was coming from the support veins of the secondary ?
If this is true, can they be reduced ?

Stu

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Stu Ward

I was going to take a photo of what I saw, but never got round to it

The fact that i saw such a small disc surprised me, and also the cross hair affect (sorry don't know the real term) made me think i was doing something wrong or something wrong with the telescope.
I thought that maybe the cross hair was coming from the support veins of the secondary ?
If this is true, can they be reduced ?

Stu

Stu, I think you re talking about Diffraction Spikes
Because Venus is so bright and with the object being so low, and maybe your scope is not cooled down all add to this effect.
So really nothing wrong.
Just see if you can observe Venus when it is higher in the sky, and try as I said in my other post using a filter

[asimov (John)]

You'll get the most out of Venus by trying to find it just before sunset. The higher it is the better. Just don't point that scope anywhere near that big bright thing called Sol !

[Outbackmanyep]

Venus is awesome when it's big and crescent shaped and is a good daytime target, i can even make out the crescent shape in 7x50 binoculars in daytime during the time either side near it's inferior conjunction, it is visible naked eye in the daytime too, so don't let the low horizon discourage you!

I must warn though, daytime observing has it's hazards ie: SUN!
So be extra careful!

[astro744]

Venus crosses the meridian due north at about 2:50pm at the moment (changes slightly daily) and if you set up facing north and scan the sky with binoculars from horizon upward at just prior to that time you will find it. (Make sure your focus is set to infinity or a distant tree). CAREFUL NOT TO GO ANYWHERE WEST OF NORTH TO AVOID THE SUN. In fact once you find it with bino's you will also spot it visually unaided as it is bright enough. Then try and find it with the telescope and again be careful of pointing it anywhere near the Sun. Place an extra long dew/sun shield on the end of your 'scope to make sure you don't get any off-axis rays entering the tube.

Stellarium will provide you with the time of the north passage and the angle above the ground. (Turn on Alt/Az grid and N hor at the bottom of the screen with enough zoom to just show the horizon at the bottom with a slight curve). When Venus crosses the meridian it will be at its highest point on a given day and will offer you better seeing than when it is lower in the sky.

The cross you see is diffraction spikes caused by the secondary spider vanes and you will not see them in the daytime. Venus is gibbous at the moment and will grow in size and become crescent shaped over the next few months. See if you can observe when the phase is exactly 50% (Dichotomy) as it is quite a sight.

I recently enjoyed observing Venus over a three day period around 2:30pm with an 80mm ED refractor and the image was quite impressive at around 187x. I could even see subtle differences in brightness in the cloud layer.

Today Venus is about 15 arcsec in diameter with a phase of 0.73. Dichotomy will occur around Aug 17 (phase 0.5) and maximum diameter of 61.5 arcsec (phase 0.006) will be on Oct 29 (inferior conjunction with Sun and too close to observe).

Mars will be 24.3 arc sec in Jul 27, 2018. This year Mars got to 14.1 arcsec in Jan 29.

[Brian W (Brian)]

One of the viewing opportunities with Venus that moves it out of the 'oh well' category and into the OMG category is the Ashen Light phenomena.

There are occasions when our moon in its quarter phase will show not only the bright quarter but a very dim full circle as well due to reflected earth light.

Venus will also, on very rare occasions, show not only a bright quarter but her full roundness as well. (certainly not because of reflected earth light)

Brian

[venus (Lydia)]

Hi, interesting discussion on planet Venus, here is some more on the
'ashen light phenomena' from wiki and a link to a page about a recent attempt to view it from India...
Amateur astronomers attempting to view the Ashen Light can try it by using an occulting bar, an opaque mask for one’s eyes. This lens blocks the sunlit portion of Venus which greatly cuts down extraneous light that is scattered in the eye, improving the chances of witnessing the faint Ashen glow. However, Venus light scattered by the Earth's atmosphere and in the telescope's lens still works against the observer, and it is very hard to get the timing just right. Nevertheless, there have been calculated times in which the light scattered by Earth is covered partially by our Moon. For example, on July 17, 2001, the progression of a crescent Moon temporarily hid the illuminated portion of Venus. Unfortunately the location needed to catch this almost perfect occultation was somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and it was only visible in this manner for 10 to 20 seconds.
http://www.iucaa.ernet.in/~aaa/occul...cun16may10.htm