Venus & The Pleiades - 04/03/2020

Get your cameras/telescopes ready! It's gonna look like one of the Seven Sisters went supernova.
This is a screencap from Starry Night 8 planetarium program.

All clouds here

The conjunction tonight is pretty darn close so if you've got clear weather tonight, go get it.

All overcast now from a cold front moving through and suppose to be that way tonight too .

I took this last night (2 April 2020) from our home in NE TN. It should be quite a sight tonight with Venus in the midst of the Pleiades.
Getting a good shot with Venus and the very subdued Pleiades intermingled will be a challenge. Any technical tips would be appreciated.

When you try again you might want to use f/5.6-f/8 so that way your skies are not so dark and you can absorb a little more brightness of the stars and night sky . It will also help not having all those spikes on Venus . Friday night and Saturday night give best opportunities for best shot . Myself was hoping but a cold front moved in snd looks like clouds until Sunday afternoon .

grizzerbear wrote in post #19039526
I took this last night (2 April 2020) from our home in NE TN. It should be quite a sight tonight with Venus in the midst of the Pleiades.
Getting a good shot with Venus and the very subdued Pleiades intermingled will be a challenge. Any technical tips would be appreciated.

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8 sec. ago as a reply to grizzerbear's post | #7
As Celestron mentioned already, a faster f-stop. But to really get the two at their best, take multiple exposures. One set exposed for the Pleiades and another set exposed for Venus. A bit of photoshop merging and compositing will probably be required.

I had lovely views in between the clouds with the 8x40 bins and the F10 4" refractor. Plus I grabbed this snap at 100mm before the clouds/trees obscured the view fully.
Absolutely magical moment, I'm glad I saw it

Thanks for the heads up Sirius Doggy.

Here's my attempt from Brisbane on 3rd April.

Cheers

Dennis

Photo from nardes's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (1036485)

Thanks for the advice. I tried several different settings and this shot was my favorite. I'm not very good at merging multiple exposures, so that is something I'll have to work at. Thanks again. I don't think you could take a bad shot of these two heavenly bodies

grizzerbear wrote in post #19039948
Thanks for the advice. I tried several different settings and this shot was my favorite. I'm not very good at merging multiple exposures, so that is something I'll have to work at. Thanks again. I don't think you could take a bad shot of these two heavenly bodies

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That really is much better especially on Venus ! Very nice !

I'm still imaging as I post this first shot before it got dark.
ISO400 - 15second exposure
Canon 5D Mark II
Esplore Scientific ED127mm refractor.

More to come later after the imaging session finishes.

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …i-w6vfvxs-X2.jpg&lb=1&s=A

SiriusDoggy wrote in post #19040015
I'm still imaging as I post this first shot before it got dark.
ISO400 - 15second exposure
Canon 5D Mark II
Esplore Scientific ED127mm refractor.

More to come later after the imaging session finishes.

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …i-w6vfvxs-X2.jpg&lb=1&s=A on Smugmug

Nicely done, Venus hasn't blown out too much and love those round, tight stars.

Cheers

Dennis

Another single image after dark. I'm hoping to do some stacking tomorrow after a bit of sleep. Curious to see if I can pull out any of the blue nebula around the brighter stars. Probably not considering my light pollution and 1st quarter moon.

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …i-TBd457H-XL.jpg&lb=1&s=A

While you all were enjoying clear skies, and perfect exposures, I was in the poorest visibility possible. However, I'm not upset as such, I saw this one by Nasa on their SSERVI website, and was really impressed by their one.
~Sanjeev Nanda