Venus in broad daylight/Sunspots
Taken by Jonathan Sabin on January 5, 2014 @
Knowing that we are fast approaching the last chance to spot Venus for a while, I decided to set up my scope (10" Meade LX200) in the middle of the afternoon to try to spot the thin (1.4% illuminated) crescent.
Using the scope's "Goto" control was useless, as it refused to point itself so close to the Sun! So I pulled the R.A. and Dec. of the planet using software and "drove" right to Venus!
Since I was "in the neighborhood," I decided to check out the Sun to see what was going on, and was treated to an awesome Sunspot group (1944). The largest spot in the group is roughly 40,000 miles across!
Click photo for larger image
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Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D300
Exposure Time: 125/100000
Aperture: f/1.0
ISO: 200
Date Taken: 2014:01:05 15:48:23
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Details:
Knowing that we are fast approaching the last chance to spot Venus for a while, I decided to set up my scope (10" Meade LX200) in the middle of the afternoon to try to spot the thin (1.4% illuminated) crescent.
Using the scopes "Goto" control was useless, as it refused to point itself so close to the Sun! So I pulled the R.A. and Dec. of the planet using software and "drove" right to Venus!
Since I was "in the neighborhood," I decided to check out the Sun to see what was going on, and was treated to an awesome Sunspot group (1944). The largest spot in the group is roughly 40,000 miles across!
Photographer's website:
http://www.flickr.com/jonathansabin
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