Finding Venus

I decided to try the Sky Guide Challenge of capturing the shadow of the light cast by Venus (April issue, page 55), so I rigged up a large sheet of white paper in my kitchen and attached a cut out of the Venus de Milo to the window. Over the course of two nights I set up my Canon 70D and 50mm lens on Bulb (B) mode and tried a few test images beginning around 10pm. I found that f/1.8, ISO 2500 and a 60” exposure looked okay on the camera screen, but Photoshop showed it needed stretching. The two images (right) were taken five minutes apart; as you would expect from the setting Venus, the image moves up and to the right. To misquote the Beatles, ‘She came in through the kitchen window, projected on a paper screen.’

Paul Mundell, via email

Very well done, Paul. With your entirely

fitting choice of object to cast the

shadow, you’ve met the Sky Guide Challenge with real creativity! – Ed.

Paul used the light of Venus to cast a distinctive shadow