Venus In A Telescope
Written by Tammy Plotner
Are you curious about what the planet Venus might look like in a telescope? Almost everyone has seen bright Venus as it rises just before the Sun or appears in the western sky just as the sun sets. You can see it is very bright and it is very bright in a telescope, too! But, what does Venus look like in a telescope? First, let's start with finding Venus…
Venus To The Eyes
Most of the time it is very easy to see for yourself when Venus is making an appearance because it outshines everything but the Moon. However, if you would like to predict Venus' appearance, try using a planetarium tool like Your Sky to help. In the meantime, begin surveying the sky either in the evenings just as the Sun sets, or in the morning just before the Sun rises. Venus will appear like a very bright "star" on the ecliptic plane.
Many times Venus will also appear with other planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Mars or Mercury… Even the Moon! Such sights are very inspiring.
Venus In A Telescope
Because Venus is an interior planet, it appears to go through phases just like our Moon. Venus' cloudtops are very bright and this makes Venus incredibly bright in a telescope as well. Oddly enough, Venus appears to be the brightest when the crescent is the smallest! To help reveal Venus' phases, you must filter your telescope with colored filters to tone down the brightness. There is no perfect filter combination and experience is the best teacher. Perhaps one night a dark green, dark blue and dark red filter combined will give a pleasing image of Venus, while another night a dark yellow and dark green filter may be enough. Many times a dark violet filter will also help to see limb darkening when Venus is at a gibbous phase.
It does not take a large telescope to see Venus – but even a large telescope does not reveal many details on Venus for several reasons; such as our own atmosphere gives poor viewing stability because Venus is always low and the planet itself shows few (if any) details other than cloudtop markings.
Filed under: Astronomy
