Imaging the Dark Side of VENUS

Lydia

It has been confirmed that I actually imaged the dark side of Venus.
I have received e-mails from some experts and they are amaze that it
can be done with an eight inch telescope. It is >>>possible<<< that I
may break the smallest aperture record ever taken of the Venus' night
side. ...And to date, there are three amateurs worldwide already taken
this kind of shot but none taken by a USA amateur. I'll see if these
are true!

See here:
http://hometown.aol.com/frankj12/venusindex.html

I have stacked up to 40 images taken with a 1.0 micron filter.
It is a Schott RG1000nm. Surprisingly, the Starlight Xpress camera is
quite sensitive to this wavelength. I preferred at prime focus where I
can get most of the light, not resolution.

What you are seeing is that I overexposed the sunlit part of
Venus to show the night side. This makes the bright crescent look much
larger that it was. About half of Venus' dark side is dimly visible.
Venus' surface is hot enough to glow at 1.0 micron that can emerge
right through Venus' thick cloud cover!!! Originally, I thought it
could be the Ashen's Light. That is still a mystery and never been
confirmed at visible light. But in the near infrared at 1.0 micron, it
penetrates through the thick atmosphere on the night side where it
glows!!! Now, there are interested if I can image any details on the
surface of the dark side!!! Believe it or not, they don't have that!!

This is perhaps the most interesting observation I ever made.
The images may look crummy but they may contain a lots of scientific
value. Thanks to Christophe Pellier of France who gave me the courage.
He did it with his C14 telescope in May 2004.

Still, I have many more images taken with half an hour of
22:00 UT (Dec. 23rd)

Frank J Melillo

Imaging the Dark Side of VENUS

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