Telescope: LXD75 SC8 @ f/10, Twilight I mount
Camera: Stock Canon 600D, remote switch
Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter
Exposure: 40×1/3000sec, ISO 400, saved as RAW
White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic
Software: Autostakkert, Nebulosity, Photoshop
I wanted to try and catch Venus before we lost it to the sun’s glare and with the weather forecast looking bleak for the next week I decided to take a peek with my SC8 while I had it out from earlier today observing the moon in daylight. Venus was easy to locate by setting my telescope’s altitude using an inclinometer and sweeping east of the sun. In my finder Venus quickly appeared as a tiny crescent, and through the scope it looked beautiful, being less than 6% illuminated and only about 27 million miles away and about to pass between the Earth and the sun. I replaced my star diagonal with my stock 600D, centered and focused Venus using live view, and took a several series of images, pausing to reset the field between sets. The source images were centered and cropped in Photoshop, stacked in Autostakkert, binned 2×2 in Nebulosity, and finished back in Photoshop.
Venus in currently very low in the southwest at dusk.
Recent Comments