Venus on the 4th of July

I was over at a relative's house yesterday for the 4th of July.  I had given my wife's cousin my old dobsonian, and this was a good opportunity to give her a lesson on how to use her new scope.

Equipment Summary:

1. Orion 6" Dobsonian - original Deep Space Explorer series
2. Diagonal - none
3. Barlow - none
4. Eyepieces used - 12.5mm and 10mm

Date/Time:  7/4/10  9:30pm

Location:  Backyard - Sarver, PA

Seeing:  Clear

Weather:  Hot and Humid

Experience:  Good.  I was glad I could spend some time to show my wife's cousin how to use the scope.

Recap:  I wanted to take a picture of Venus but could not get the image to display on my laptop via the StarShoot imager and PHD software.  But in terms of viewing, all was good.  Venus clearly looked like a gibbous moon (D shape) through the telescope.

The following link/steps will take you to a web page displaying several images of Venus.

1. Click on the following link -- K3 Home Page.
   
2. On the left hand side of the K3 Home Page, click on "Solar System".
3. Click on "Venus" to bring up several images of the planet.
4. The first image resembles what we saw last night but the image was much sharper.

While you're on the K3 website, do enjoy the many great pictures and astrophotography information.


Clear skies!!!