Venus was occulted by the Moon on June 19 in an event that was visible in broad daylight across the north-western half of Europe, including the UK. This fantastic shot of crescent-phase Venus just about to be swallowed up by a four per cent-illuminated old crescent Moon was captured remotely by Peter Goodhew. Realising he would be clouded out from London, he logged on to his dual rig at the e-EyE hosting site in Extremadura, Spain (www.entreencinasyestrellas.es/en/en-home/).
At 9.18am CEST, Peter captured a 1/100-sec shot through a red filter using a APM TMB LZOS 152 refractor (150mm [six-inch] aperture and 1,200mm focal length) and a QSI6120wsg8 CCD camera, both sited on a 10Micron GM2000 HPS GEM mount. Due to the large dynamic range between the Moon and Venus, Peter processed the raw data to stretch the Moon a little while reducing Venus’ intensity. He added it was a little scary slewing an expensive robotic telescope so close to the Sun!
Explore more of Peter’s excellent work on his website at https://www.imagingdeepspace.com
