New Image: Venus July 4, 2023

[gcisko]

Telescope: Celestron 8SE
Camera: Celestron Skyris 132C with Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate
Image source: 8000 frame AVI video (5% frames used): processed with PiPP, Autostakkert, Registax, and PS.
Date: 07/4/2023

Venus angular diameter is 35.63 arcseconds and is 28.9% illuminated.

Venus July 4, 2023 by Greg Cisko, on Flickr

[AstroBee]

Very impressive Greg!

[messier 111]

wow , superb shot , thx .

[Juno16]

Very nice image!

I really like the difference in contrast between the light and dark areas!

[astrorlk]

This is the best image I have ever seen that captures the night side of Venus. That atmosphere really scatters the light on the day-lit side all the way around the planet. Fantastic.

[Thefatkitty]

Well done; it reminds me of documentaries I've seen of pics that spacecraft take on approach to the planet. Looks awesome on Flickr!

All the best,

[gcisko]

Thanks everyone!

FYI: Amazingly, even with Sharpcap set to 1/8000 second exposure, the illuminated section was still way over-saturated. So I used a 13% moon filter to knock the intensity down so I could get details I assumed were clouds.

As for the lit shadow side some have mentioned; that was a choice I made in post processing to make sure everyone could see it was a planet - instead of some weird crescent - floating is a dark abyss. So the image was "photoshopped" in that a mask or two was used to get the effect I was looking for. I tried to make the effect subtle...

That said, the image is the real result of an 8000 frame avi video with a bit of post processing. It was not a single image or anything like that.

[Thefatkitty]

Wow, I use about 1/200 to 300 exposure on the Sun, of course that's with solar film. Still, it goes to show how bright Venus is!

You went to a lot of work for this; it paid off. And thanks for mentioning the settings you used, if my weather ever clears I'd like to try the same

Thanks Greg and all the best,

[TheButcher]

Excellent image!!!