I often get asked what is that immensely bright star? It is often called the "Morning Star" or the "Evening Star" but, it is a planet! The planet Venus - it is not a star at all... The word planet comes out of Greek meaning to wanderer. It is the brightest celestial object out there right now - third brightest after the Sun and Moon. Here is what Venus looks like through my 9 1/4 inch wide telescope. All we can see is a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect. Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900°F – hot enough to melt lead. Venus has crushing air pressure at its surface, 90 times that of Earth – similar to the pressure of a mile below the ocean on Earth. The clouds are so dense all we get is a very bland picture. Since, Venus is semi-close the horizon the view is quite turbulent. To obtain this picture I have to take over 2000 frames and then pick out only the ones that are lucky enough to be taken the during times when the atmosphere is settled down. Hence they call this "lucky imaging". I have an semi-automated process that make it way easier than it sounds.😁 By the way the light takes 6 minutes and 9 seconds to get to us.
