Astroblog: Views of Venus

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Views of Venus

After having a bit of a heavy couple of weeks with work related stuff and my oh, so late Sky&Space contribution. I've been "sleeping in" to catch up with the much needed raveller of the sleve of care. I was able to get out in the early twilight to catch some nice images of Venus near the Moon. On Wednesday, the Moon was sufficently close to Venus that I could use the Moon as a guide to find Venus in the day time. It was a snap picking out the bright spark of the planet near the Moons crescent. (click to enlarge image, once again, an image that is really bright on my monitor in Paintshop or Gimp is dark and muddy when acessed via Blogger Photos).

This is a closeup view of the Moon and Venus on the 24th. You can just see the maria in the Earthshine of the cresent. (click to enlarge)

This one, taken on Thursday 25, with the Moon just two days from New, shows the Earthshine and maria very nicely. (click to enlarge) The image is sideways, to make it easier to view.

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:08 am

Comments:

Good shots showing change. Sort of diffcult to pick out that the crescent is diminishing, or that the darkside is growing, but looks like more maria in the earthshine.

I like the sidewise view for its panoramic effect, but in vertical it shows the proper orienation? In the second photo Moon has passed Venus, right? Morning events pass me unless I get up specifically for them :^D

c'ya peter

# posted by

Tag : 5:06 am

Yep, in the second image the real orientation is Venus is to the top and the Moon near the bottom. With no control of my exposures, the crescent gets over exposed and it is dificult to see properly, but there is more maria in the second image.

# posted by

Ian Musgrave : 10:38 am