Yet more of Venus

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Thefatkitty Canada
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Yet more of Venus

#1

Post by Thefatkitty »


Hi all, hope all is good and your store shelves are full :D Sarah (my daughter) and I went to the local grocery store last night. Two manned patrol cars in the lot, meat, pasta, canned goods, TP; all gone, there was police security in the store too and line-ups like I've never seen.
We were in the about 5 minutes, Sarah turns to me and says "Daddy, this is like the beginning of Fear the Walking Dead when it all starts!" We both laughed at that (though it did look like it) and decided that tomorrow was another day. I went this morning when they opened and though stock was limited, we won't starve or have to BBQ the cat :lol:

So having done all that, I'm bored. Had dinner and looked outside. Clouds until tomorrow, when it's supposed to clear starting at 4AM. Mayhaps I will set my phone to waken me... As I looked out the back door, I noticed it was clear around the horizon and Venus was peeking out through the clouds. Imagine that. Well, I have something I've wanted to try for some time, so time to do just that. The Moon would be the easier target, but Venus will do as well.

I have an old C80 I bought several years ago. The OTA only, no Super Polaris mount came with it :( So I use the CG4 that came with my C80-HD. This orange scope has the circle-V (Vixen) logo with the JTII stamp on it as well. I love the views through it.

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However, it can't come to focus with a DSLR as there's not enough inward travel. Most Celestron 80mm's have a f/l of 900mm, this one is 910mm's:

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So the idea I know is to use a barlow. I have one barlow, and this is it:

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In playing with this, I discovered it separates into three pieces:

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The black piece with the lens in it fits into the T-ring on my camera, which saves me putting the camera into the barlow itself. I just wonder if it's still 2X??

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I took all this out, and by that time Venus was in clear sky, with clouds overhead. Weird that, but fine by me. I set up, and with the help of a magnifying glass, found focus on the screen on the back of my T3.
I took 35 shots at ISO 1600 and 1/2500th sec exposure, and this was the result after PIPP, AS2, and some very light tweaking in Registax. I was quite happy with it actually.

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My timing was good; about 20 minutes later the planet was disappearing behind the trees. Hopefully tomorrow pans out; I'd like to do some visual comparisons with this and my 80mm f/15 :D

We shall see. Hopefully you all have a clear night!
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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bladekeeper
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Re: Yet more of Venus

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Post by bladekeeper »


Sweet capture of Venus, Mark! Nice work!

Still envious of that gorgeous orange tube. I keep scouring Craigslist for one to turn up locally. So far, nuthin'. I just know someone has one stashed unused and forgotten around here somewhere. Maybe I should post a want ad... :lol:

Heavy rain this morning, and more on the docket for all of next week. And so it goes...:D

Stores here have been rather packed. I kinda need to get in there and grab a half-gallon of milk but I'm afraid I'd be disappointed. Maybe have to look into a dairy cow and a couple of chickens. :lol:
Bryan
Scopes: Apertura AD12 f/5; Celestron C6-R f/8; ES AR127 f/6.4; Stellarvue SV102T f/7; iOptron MC90 f/13.3; Orion ST80A f/5; ES ED80 f/6; Celestron Premium 80 f/11.4; Celestron C80 f/11.4; Unitron Model 142 f/16; Meade NG60 f/10
Mounts: Celestron AVX; Bresser EXOS-2; ES Twilight I; ES Twilight II; iOptron Cube-G; AZ3/wood tripod; Vixen Polaris
Binoculars: Pentax PCF WP II 10×50, Bresser Corvette 10×50, Bresser Hunter 16×50 and 8×40, Garrett Gemini 12×60 LW, Gordon 10×50, Apogee 20×100

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UlteriorModem
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Re: Yet more of Venus

#3

Post by UlteriorModem »


Excellent!

I was thinking of trying to cap Venus but it's in the trees. Maybe I can catch enough …

Thanks for the inspiration ! :)
Tom

Current Equipment:
Mount: Celestron CGX-L
Scope: 130mm f7 APO
Cam: ASI071mc-pro
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Thefatkitty Canada
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Re: Yet more of Venus

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Post by Thefatkitty »


bladekeeper wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2020 1:47 am Sweet capture of Venus, Mark! Nice work!

Still envious of that gorgeous orange tube. I keep scouring Craigslist for one to turn up locally. So far, nuthin'. I just know someone has one stashed unused and forgotten around here somewhere. Maybe I should post a want ad... :lol:

Heavy rain this morning, and more on the docket for all of next week. And so it goes...:D

Stores here have been rather packed. I kinda need to get in there and grab a half-gallon of milk but I'm afraid I'd be disappointed. Maybe have to look into a dairy cow and a couple of chickens. :lol:
Thanks Bryan! Yeah, they are hard to find it seems. I actually paid $160 for this; the seller knew what he had :lol: But I'm happy with it, just too bad there was no mount. I'd be willing to bet your two C80's do as well as this does though. The only difference between my orange tube and my C80-HD is the orange tube seems to have a slightly darker background. Posting a want ad is a great idea, sometimes people just need to have their memory about what they have jogged a bit!

Hope your weather fares better, between that and perhaps work you're few and far between on here... Good luck with the milk as well! Geez, I have to go back to NY this coming Friday, should be interesting to see how that goes at the border :D

UlteriorModem wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2020 2:06 am Excellent!

I was thinking of trying to cap Venus but it's in the trees. Maybe I can catch enough …

Thanks for the inspiration ! :)

Thanks Tom; wish the skies were a bit better though, still a bit of fuzz round the edges :lol:
You welcome for the inspiration, and I'd like to see what you could do with that. You've got the equipment and know-how, look forward to seeing what you get! Providing your skies cooperate, of course ;)

All the best,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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Bigzmey United States of America
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Re: Yet more of Venus

#5

Post by Bigzmey »


Good looking scope, nice shot of Venus and entertaining story, Mark! BBQed cat, yum! :lol:

We are getting storm after storm here.
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.

Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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