Venus Jupiter conjunction

[alan potts]

The weather here is being more than very British of late with so much rain and nothing in the way of clear sky, someone must have bought one hell of a lot of new gear not far from me .

Anyway after another wet day and grey clouds I went to bed. I looked out the window and was very pleased to see the close conjunction of the two planets, very close indeed. There was no real point in going out to the scope as they were already too low for me to see them , my barn gets in the way and I caould see it was a very small clearing in the grey stuff. Nice while it lasted and a long time since I have seen two planets so close to each other, which of course they are not.

Alan

[Pete Presland]

Despite the clear blue skies in Bedfordshire all day we were almost clouded out as well.

[dick_dangerous]

Typically, after wall-to-wall blue skies, the one night I wanted it to be clear, the skies clouded over. Caught a glimpse of it over the rooftops, but when we reached a good vantage point, over came the clouds...

Paul

[baggywrinkle]

Absolutely crystal clear over West Winch last night...will post pics when I have had a play with them.

[Viewmaster]

I zoomed in on them and watched them  in Stellarium  !!..........no clouds.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Nice view around 10.30pm,then hidden by trees-which co-incidentally happens in my version of Stellarium. Life imitating Art,or what?

[Fozzie]

managed these two for about an hour around 10pm before the roof tops got in the way, set up in the front garden which got a few curtains going and even got a few of my neighbours out too (only been there 10 weeks and have met only half off them!)

Very pleasant in the 4" with the 15mm TVP, nice and sharp but could only just make out 1 of Jupiter's moon's as it was very light still..  Lovely cresent phase on Venus though, which surprised a few people..

someone must have bought one hell of a lot of new gear not far from me .

Not your birthday anytime soon is it Alan? Fingers crossed for you if it is!

Thanks

Fozzie

[SimonfromSussex]

I managed a very brief glimpse last night before the thunder and lightening rolled in.

Amazing sight, 21mm for me captured the two nicely in my dob, lovely crescent of Venus (as Fozzie said) and then Jupiter with several moons showing some slight surface detail even at that low mag.

Such a shame the daytime weather couldn't be matched last night!!!!

[chiltonstar]

It popped into view several times from here:

Chris

[alan potts]

The two seemed very close together from here closer than the photo, this was 10.20PM so with time difference 8.20 in the UK and I had a dark sky as the Moon was low in the SE. I guess at this time even Venus will not have been visible in England. I only saw them for about 10 minutes but it was nice nonetheless.

[Piero]

Here the conjunction was clear until about 10:15. The seeing was not great though and I struggled seeing details on Jupiter.

Here is my report:

Powers: 28x, 72x, 103x.

Observation at twilight. The two planets were about 0.3 / 0.5 degrees apart, so visible on the fov of all my eyepieces. Venus was largely brighter and bigger than Jupiter. Venus phase was less than 40%. The planet border was well defined. Jupiter bands were only visible at low power (28x) due to the mediocre seeing. It was possible to see 3 satellites but the sky was still too bright for detect them easily. It was nice to see this conjunction, but unfortunately the seeing did not allow sufficient resolution for Jupiter which was not easy to focus. At 28x the North and South Equatorial belts were visible in the early evening.

[NGC 1502]

Castle Point Astronomy club had a small star party ( planet party ?    ) when 7 of us met at Canewdon Essex where there's a good NW horizon.

We had great view from 21.30 BST, bit of broken cloud 22.00 - 22.15, then clear again.  But 2 phone calls from 8 and 12 miles west, they were clouded out, they were a bit gutted after such a clear day.

We consoled them by saying what a super time we were having

Regards, Ed.

[Stu]

Nice views here too, quite shimmery in the heat but in the Tak 76 at x62 they both say in the fov beautifully against a black sky. Very nice.

[xtreemchaos]

horrid veiw here in south wales big bank of cloud in the way, had to settle with the moon,  it looked great .how long to the next conjunction ?. clear skys..charl..

[alan potts]

ED you really know how to rub salt into wounds.

Alan

[cotterless45]

Looked really stunning in the twilight, just more beautiful as the pair finely set. The sky stayed wonderfully clear for about an hour before the very highest thinnest clouds swept in.

Old Nick.

[bejay1957]

Clouded out here at the wrong time, having been cloudless all day...

[andrew63]

Looking good again tonight 9.25 - still very close if you missed them yesterday.

andrew

[andrew63]

Just been looking with 10x50s, it's lightish, and with not much glare, not only is Venus showing a nice phase but Jupiter is showing a definite 'orb' also. Must admit i usually don't look at Jupiter when it's this light, but the disk really stands out well without the bright glare of darkness to contend with.

andrew