Continuing my imaging of Venus during the 2019-2020 evening apparition. These images were captured on the night of April 2, 2020 (April 3 in UTC). Venus was ~46% illuminated in this image. I re-collimated my SCT a few nights ago, and boy did that improve my images. I had a feeling my last collimation before this wasn't that great and this nights images confirmed it. I've also been learning my way around the focusing tools in Sharpcap and am amazed at how great they work with my Celestron motorized SCT focuser. By sweeping in and out of focus and generating focus curves in Sharpcap I feel like I am getting much more consistent and accurate focusing. The climb up the learning curve continues...

Imaged with a C8 Evo, ZWO ADC, Baader UV-IR Cut filters, and ZWO ASI224MC. Imaging train was configured to give me ~F/20. Image capture using Firecapture (see below for exposure settings). Stacking in AutoStakkert3 (best 20% of ~27000 frames captured over 180 seconds). Color balancing and Wavelet sharpening in Registax6. Derotated and combined images in WinJUPOS.

Exposure settings:

UV-IR Cut Filter images: Shutter=1.05ms, Gain=130 (21%), Histogram=50%, 150 FPS

FireCapture v2.5 Settings

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Observer=JDJ

Scope=Celestron Nextstar Evolution 8

Camera=ZWO ASI224MC

Filter=RGB

Profile=Venus

Diameter=26.14"

Magnitude=-4.41

FocalLength=4150mm (F/20)

Resolution=0.19"

Filename=2020-04-03-0024_6-J-RGB.avi

Date=2020_04_03

Start=002311.163

Mid=002441.169

End=002611.175

Start(UT)=002311.163

Mid(UT)=002441.169

End(UT)=002611.175

Duration=180.012s

Date_format=yyyy_MM_dd

Time_format=HHmmss

LT=UT -5h

Frames captured=26992

File type=AVI

Extended AVI mode=true

Compressed AVI=false

Binning=no

ROI=300x300

ROI(Offset)=0x0

FPS (avg.)=149

Shutter=1.050ms

Gain=130 (21%)

HighSpeed=on

WRed=52

SoftwareGain=10 (off)

AutoHisto=75 (off)

USBTraffic=100

Gamma=50

Brightness=1

AutoExposure=off

HardwareBin=off

WBlue=95

Histogramm(min)=0

Histogramm(max)=128

Histogramm=50%

Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a

Limit=180 Seconds

Sensor temperature=23.2 °C

Focuser position=30033