USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 15 October 2002

Venus Observations

Subject:	Venus at 12%...ETX90RA!
Sent:	Sunday, October 13, 2002 5:58:36
From:	martyn@starmail.co.za (martyn)
Since the 2nd of March 2002 I have been following Venus in the ETX90. I
have seen it's phase shrink from 98% to 12%, which was on Friday the
11th October 2002.

I viewed Venus at 15:36h-16:00h(local). Transit was at 15:00h(local) so
I view Venus past it's highest point. It was at 13 degrees above the
Sout South-Western horizon. The sky was clear, but around Venus the sky
background through the ETX was not blue but white-ish. Because Venus is
so close to the sun now I had the ETX90RA set up in the shade (sun
blocked) of a wall to prevent any accidents. The thin crescent showed
really very nice at 48X (SP26mm).

When Venus is closer to 50% lit, the terminator appears very, very fuzzy
indeed because of it's clouddeck. The ETX90 shows this very, very well.

But now the terminator lies much closer to the limb, this
terminator-fuzziness shows a little less clearly...but can still be seen
especially through SP15mm or higher power. Even though it was very
windy, the crescent showed very well through the SP26mm at 48X. The
SP15mm at 83X however "showed the wind".

Because the sky around Venus was so bright I could not pick it up
through 10X50 binoculars...image way too bright.

The little 8X25 RA finder however DID show the crescent of Venus!

Regards,
martyn
observing from The Netherlands

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