Has Anyone Seen Detail on Venus?

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jrkirkham United States of America
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Has Anyone Seen Detail on Venus?

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Post by jrkirkham »


I'm currently watching Venus grow in size and brightness over the next couple of months. I noticed an article in the December issue of Astronomy on the history of Venus observations. I looked up some of Damian Peach's shots and they show cloud detail. I've always just assumed that other than phases there wasn't much to see on Venus. Perhaps I was wrong.

Have any of you seen detail on Venus? If so, how? Did it depend on the phase? Did you use a filter? Did you observe during daylight? Could the detail be captured during imaging? :shrug:
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Re: Has Anyone Seen Detail on Venus?

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Post by notFritzArgelander »


I can’t say anything about imaging but I’ve rarely made out some visual details on Venus. Most often it’s in the form of a notch or irregular region on the terminator, that kind of feature has been visible in the daylight and dark. The next most common feature is a larger region of lower albedo but I’ve only been sure of it in the dark.

My most exciting visual observation of Venus was actually naked eye! I was driving to a business appointment at oh-dark-I-need-coffee hours and Venus looked “funny” at a glance. So I stopped the car and looked carefully. I could resolve the thin crescent phase without optics!
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Re: Has Anyone Seen Detail on Venus?

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Post by Refractordude »


My last observation seemed to show some light grey areas.
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Re: Has Anyone Seen Detail on Venus?

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Post by Bigzmey »


I saw some great shots of Venus (on former AF or CN) with fine clouds details, so it is definitely possible to capture.

As for visual my experience mirrors nFA's. Best chance to catch some details is when Venus is near great elongation (~50% phase). Hints of clouds can be observed near terminator and darker area on the lighted half. Good quality dark blue filter (like Baader 470 bp) works best for me. The best views for me are typically before sunset when Venus is not yet visible naked eye.
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