Astroblog: Reflections of Venus

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Reflections of Venus

Venus is not only bright enough to see by daylight, it is bright enough to cast a reflection as well. Not only can you get near prefect images of Venus in still water (see here and here and here and finally here) , but under certain conditions it can also produce a reflective track like that of the Moon casting its glowing trail across the sea.

Here is my image of Venus reflecting off the sea (as always click to enlarge). The track of Venus was quite clear, but unlike last night there was no fireworks to go with it. The image was taken with my Canon IXUS at 9:40 pm ACDST (about 1 hour 15 minutes after sunset), from a height of about 10 meters looking down to the sea. Exposure time was 10 second at ISO 400 (Focal lenght 6.2 mm apature 2.8). Venus is at near maximum brightness (Magnitude -4.5), and at a sufficent height above the sea for it to remain visible after nautical twighligh a a decent distance above the sea, but not too high (10 degrees in this case). In the next few days the waxing Moon will drwon out Venus's refelection so try and see it if you can.

Other people have done better photos, see this one here.

Labels: astrophotography, Venus

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:26 pm

Comments:

My son and I saw a reflection of venus on water last night in Highlands of Scotland I am very pleased to find this picture as my camera is broken and wasnt sure that I could quite believe what I was seeing - its a fantastic sight
John and Cathel Robertson

# posted by