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Observing Venus through a telescope
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. Similar in size and mass to Earth, Venus has no liquid water, and its atmosphere is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the Solar System.
What Venus is
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. Similar in size and mass to Earth, Venus has no liquid water, and its atmosphere is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the Solar System. The atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and has a thick cloud layer of sulfuric acid that spans the whole planet. At the mean surface level, the atmosphere reaches a temperature of 737 K, making it the hottest planet in the solar system and also a pressure 92 times greater than Earth's at sea level, turning the lowest layer of the atmosphere into a supercritical fluid. From Earth, Venus is visible as a star-like point of light, appearing brighter than any other natural point of light in the sky, as either the brightest "morning star" or "evening star". It was also given the poetic name Ēarendel in Old English, meaning "ray of light" along with the two previous epithets.
Observing Venus through a telescope
Venus is brilliant and shows clear phases through a telescope, from a small gibbous disc to a large thin crescent. Its cloud deck hides all surface detail, so the phase is the main feature to watch.
Planets and the Moon reward higher magnification than deep-sky objects, but only up to what the air will allow: on a turbulent night the image boils and less power shows more. Magnification is your telescope's focal length divided by your eyepiece's focal length, so a shorter eyepiece gives more power. Use the Fit My Telescope tool to see the magnification and exit pupil each of your eyepieces gives before you observe.
Venus in NASA imagery
NASA has imaged Venus in detail. One example in the NASA Image and Video Library is titled Launch Vehicles, from MSFC. NASA imagery is in the public domain.
What magnification suits Venus?
Open the Fit My Telescope toolSee the magnification and exit pupil each eyepiece givesFind telescope eyepiece on eBayaffiliateRelated
Sources: Venus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA) · Wikidata (CC0) · NASA Image and Video Library: 6757466 (public domain)