Observing Logs

• Name of observer
• Observing location (latitude, longitude, height)
• Weather conditions during observation including cloud cover, seeing conditions, transparency, wind & temperature
• Telescope type, size, f-ratio
• Camera type
• Effective focal length of instrument while imaging, image scale per pixel, camera settings (gain, shutter speed, number of frames) for each filter
• Filter types
• Processing methodology (nature of image processing, including corrections & post processing)
• Image orientation (direction of celestial south & proceeding / following side of image)

Dark & Flat Fielding

Flat fields should be taken at approximately 2/3 the linear range of the detector chip. Flat fields can be taken either of the daytime sky, a white screen held over the telescope aperture or the inside of a telescope dome.

Image Processing

Image processing should include selection of sharp individual frames from video, followed by alignment & stacking of individual images to reduce noise. Generally post processing using wavelets or unsharp masking is required to reveal fine detail. However, care should be taken during processing to prevent introduction of processing artifacts.

Digital Video Imaging

1. Take dark field video
2. Take flat field video with each filter
3. Take images of Venus using filters, recording end time & duration of video acquisition
4. Process video image sequences to yield high quality stacked images that are dark & flat field corrected
5. Perform moderate post processing (wavelet processing of image)
6. Annotate images with details of image, including filters, observing time
7. Submit images to British Astronomical Association Venus Coordinators

	Observing Guidelines
	Sample Images