Venus in UV and IR, with animation

Anthony Wesley is continuing to experiment with photographing Venus in daylight.

Venus is currently the furthest south it has been since 1930, which explains why it has been lingering so high in our Southern Hemisphere skies in recent weeks.

Anthony explains the shots:

More Venus detail from Anthony Wesley

At the latest Canberra Astronomical Society meeting, Anthony Wesley described Venus as his "new favourite planet", a big call for anyone who knows how much time he spends photographing Jupiter and Saturn!

Here are Anthony's latest photos of Venus, in ultraviolet:

And in infrared:

Filters bring out Venusian detail

Ultraviolet filtered view of Venus

Venus is not often high on people's viewing agenda. The atmosphere is so dense and reflective that there's little to see through a scope other than a very bright disc—or partial disc, as it is at the moment. Yes, Venus has phases from our perspective, just like our Moon does.

But lately, Murrumbateman's Anthony Wesley has been using filters to bring out some intriguing detail in this planet. Above is from 15 October, taken well before sunset:

Here is a UV image of Venus from today, image captured approximately 5.18pm, just over 90 minutes before sunset. Interesting swirly bits around the equatorial region that were not there a couple of days ago.

A few days earlier, Anthony posted these photos: