This composite shot shows Venus getting closer and changing phase from February up to late July
when it became too close (for comfort) to the Sun to image safely.
The first 4 shots are month on month from Feb - May you'll notice the phase change yes but 
the size stays almost the same.
As it got closer to us in June the size and phase began to change faster and faster until
it was noticeable after just a few days.
The last two images are from the start and end of July and the change is very obvious.

All shots were taken with a Meade ETX-125 PE Telescope, a 2x Barlow and Philips SPC900 Webcam.
Processed in Registax and composite created in Photoshop.

10.06.07

26.04.07

Frank Ryan Jr

1min avi
etx-125
philips webcam with IR cut filter
2x barlow
Registax

19.04.07

Frank Ryan Jr

04.02.07

Frank Ryan Jr

6/3/2005 at 18.45pm.

David Lillis

Mercury using 300 frames from an avi. note the ~2/3 full phase, there was alot of turbulance. Images were stacked in registax and processed in photoshop.
The sun was still high in the sky, and mercury was not visible to the naked eye.
Safety precautions were taken to ensure that there were no direct sun beams going into the telescope.

January to June 2004.

David Lillis

Composite of the aperitif of Venus leading up to its transit in June 2004. All taken as detailed below showing the change in image size as the planet got closer to the earth.

8th June 2004 at 12:09pm.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/1000 sec at ISO 1600 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 12:05pm.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/1000 sec at ISO 1600 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 12:04pm

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/1000 sec at ISO 1600 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 12:03pm

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/1000 sec at ISO 1600 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 11:45am.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/500 sec at ISO 1600 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 09:07am.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/1000 sec at ISO 400 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 09:00am.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Several images at 1/500 sec at ISO 1600 stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 07:38am.

Michael Scully

Skylux 70mm refractor, Thousand Oaks filter, Philips ToUcam Pro at prime focus, 171 images from an video stacked in Registax

8th June 2004 at 06:29am.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Single image 1/13 sec at ISO 1600

8th June 2004 at 06:29am.

David Lillis

Meade 12" LX 200, Thousand Oaks filter, Canon EOS 300D, Single image 1/13 sec at ISO 1600

1st June 2004

David Lillis

The Venus pic was taken (with great care) on June 1st at 20:35-20:28, when it was only 8.5 degrees away from the Sun and only 6.5 days before it crosses the Sun's disk itself. The size of the disk is 58 arcseconds and the phase is only 1.5 degrees !!, and the sky was still blue as the Sun was still well above the horizon.
The limb visually was a very slender line, a bit more slender than the image here portrays.
This generated using 500 frames stacked in registax, Captured on a 12”LX200 SCT with a Philips Toucam pro webcam.

18 May 2004

David Lillis

This Venus picture taken at 20.50 BST is a stacking of 400 frames in registax, note how the phase is much smaller then previously yet the width of the “disc” is much bigger.
Equip = 12” SCT with a Philips toucam pro webcam + Registax.

April 28th 2004

David Lillis

LX200 + Toucam Pro + Laptop PC + astrosnap + registax. Venus has changed since the last pic, just three images were of sufficient quality to stack.

April 4th 2004

David Lillis

Taken almost exactly 24 hours later than the previous image below, this graphically shows the planet's movement in the sky in 24 hours. Using the same setup as the image below except that this is a single image, stacking was not possible due to the high gusty wind.

April 3rd 2004 at 20.20 GMT

David Lillis

Venus + Pleiades = 10 stacked images (registax) with a Canon EOS300d at iso1600, 2.5 seconds exposure each, through a 4” Celestron refractor at F5, unguided hence the small trailing.

March 6th 2004

David Lillis

Venus, diameter 19.1", Illuminated Fraction: 62%.Distance from Earth: 0.8822 AU. Taken with ToUcam Pro through a Barlow lens + LX200 + astrosnap + registax2 + photoshop + 150 frames of an AVI stacked.

Feb 23 2004 at 18.43

David Lillis

Venus and the Moon in the evening sky. 1/3 second exposure at F5.6 at ISO400, Canon EOS 300D (unprocessed) Taken from Limerick.

21st February 2004

David Lillis

LX200 + Toucam Pro + Laptop PC + astrosnap + registax. See how the phase and the apparent size of Venus has changed since the last pic, the seeing wasn’t as good though.

17th January 2004

David Lillis

This is a difficult planet to capture due to its brightness and low altitude, note how there are no details and all that is visible is a 2/3 (gibbous) phase, just like the moon. This was taken from 20 frames which were stacked. Equipment = 12”Lx200 + Toucam Pro + astrosnap + registax2 + photoshop

10PM, 2nd May 2002

Michael Scully

The conjunction of Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury on the 2nd of May, as seen from Tralee, Co.Kerry. Photo taken with Pentax SLR on 200 ASA print film. Saturn is to the upper left with Mars just visible a little higher and one third of the way to towards Venus. Venus dominates the center of the view with Mercury above the tree in the lower right.

As Above

Sky Charts

Screen shot from the PC program Sky Charts - Cartes du Ciel for same time and date as above.