Waiting for the evening star....

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Tal1 patiently waiting to snag the evening star
The back garden doesn't get used that often for astronomical observing, it's a pity as it affords some lovely views of the setting inferior planets .

Tonight though it was time for the Tal1 to be let loose on Venus. 

I simply parked up the scope and waited for the night to draw in...

About an hour later the sky was still blue, but Venus shone brightly......
......time to put the Tal into  action....

Firstly I took this image with just the 25mm plossl and the zoom on my digicam:

Afocal image.. with simple digicam
Then I connected our Nikon D50 via a camera adapter to the Tal's focuser using the prime focus method...

It took a few attempts to capture a decent image, but finally I managed the following image.
Nikon D50 prime focus plus x3 Barlow
Not the best shot in the world, but at least it gave me a record of the current Venusian phase...

It was a beautiful evening, the seeing was Antoniadi II but I would guess sometimes the clarity hinted at maybe an Antonadi of I........  the best seeing for many months I reckon....

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