First attempt at Venus

[Kenny]

First attempt at Venus capture this evening. Clearly still plenty of room for improvement. It was bobbing around in the atmosphere a lot and again, similar to Saturn, focusing was an issue (my cheap 6" newt looks laser collimated but it clearly has issues). I think another scope would be a good start. And a better camera  .

6" Newtonian telescope on the HEQ5 Pro mount. Celestron NexImage solar system imager CCD camera with x3 Barlow lens (so much more light than with Saturn, in fact the challenge was not over-exposing) captured via SharpCap2. 2 minutes of video at 20 fps captured in SharpCap2. Stacked in AutoStakkert2 retaining only 30% (circa 60% quality curve) of the frames. Smart Sharpened in Photoshop CS2 and cropped.

[The Thing]

Really good Kenny, you're getting to be a dab hand at planets.

[RobertM]

You're really on a roll Kenny !!!  I see evidence that your light sabre has tinges of red appearing - the dark side beckons

[Carole]

Well done Kenny.  I only attempted this planet once and like you said, the challenge is not overexposing, you did well.

Carole

[Kenny]

Thanks all. Slowly building my catalogue.