Moon and Venus

 

We finally got some relatively clear sky and I had some good luck shooting the Moon and Venus through the Mak-Cas.  This telescope has a focal length of 2700 mm (160 inches) so the views are kind of incredible, especially in steady seeing.  It's interesting to contrast the Moon which has unending detail with Venus which is shrouded in dense cloud cover.  Interestingly, I caught Venus with half the disk illuminated.    This observation, first made by Galileo, is one piece of important evidence that Venus orbits the Sun and not the Earth.

Photo Details

March 30, 2023
Celestron 7" Mak-Cas on CGEMII Mount
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono (Moon)

SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono through RGB filters (Venus)

Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in imPPG (Moon)

Adjustments in Registax 6 (Venus)

Final Adjustments in Photoshop