I saw a weird thing around Venus

Question

I pointed my telescope (50mm aperture, 500mm focal length, 4mm eyepiece, image taken through a window) at Venus and saw this:

What is it? I don't think this is Uranus or Neptune as my telescope is very bad. I haven't increased the image size too much and it was 6 A.M. (UTC+3, EEST)

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 17 '20 at 06:54

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Venus is a very bright "morning star" at the moment, but what your image shows is only a blur. The telescope is very far from focus and you can see no details of the the planet. You may also be getting some reflections from the glass of the window

If Venus was in focus you would see a very small "half moon" (or perhaps "waxing gibbous" shape) at the moment. Try to practice focusing on distant landmarks during the day. That makes it easier to get the focus right at night.

edited Sep 17 '20 at 06:54

Infinity Milestone

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answered Sep 16 '20 at 19:34

James K

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Oh, ... and here's me hoping for an imaginative answer given the latest discovery of Phosphine of Venus & the opening of a discussion about the possibility of life on Venus. Something like a Venetian equivalent of either: The War of the Worlds, or Mars Attacks, or even The Day of the Triffids. ...:-( – Fred Sep 17 '20 at 20:05
Along this line: why is it that photos of Bigfoot or UFOs are always really poor photos? – John Canon Sep 18 '20 at 00:25
how does the shape of a "waxing gibbous" differ from that of a "waning gibbous"? – uhoh Sep 18 '20 at 03:34
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in the first derivative(!) – James K Sep 18 '20 at 05:49
:-) Oh, venus has dates! https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/23271/7982 – uhoh Oct 16 '20 at 05:01

I saw a weird thing around Venus

1 Answers1