paulastro

I went out Sunday evening, mostly to observe both the growing (in size) and shrinking (in illumination) of Venus. I didn't pick Venus up until 9.08 pm. About 9 degrees to the West was the waxing Lunar crescent, with Mercury somewhere between the two. I stayed out until 10.05 pm which was when the Moon set, and Mercury stubbornly remained invisible even in 10x50s because of haze near the horizon and the light sky. I observed Venus until it set at 9.33pm in the SW 80ED. It did look superb even with rather poor seeing because of the altitude, I did use mags up to x210 but it was best at about 120, using a Baader Mk111 zoom with a X3 barlow. (sorry to let you down on the mag front Mike 😄) It was very striking how similar Venus and the Moon looked, both being very thin crescents. They could have been twins apart from the brightness and scale. Venus: mag - 4.1, illumination 3.5%, and apparent size 55.0 arcseconds. Moon: mag - 2.9, Illumination 4.6% and apparent size 30.6 arcminutes - some 33 times bigger than Venus! More importantly, the views were just beautiful. I love to see both the Moon and Venus when they present a thin crescent, so this was areal treat for me to have both together at the same time. Below are some screen grabs of the conjunction below and Venus using SkySafari pro 6 and a couple of single frames taken of the Moon as it set taken with the SW 80ED and Olympus E-M5 Mk11 as the Moon set.

Thanks and good luck for this evening John. I'll be doing the same until it's not possible to see it any longer. The weather looks as if many of us should at least have a chance over the next few days. At the moment its blanket cloud cover but I'm always hopeful. 🙂

Quite right Peter. For some years I used to tell anyone who asked what telescope I had that I had a six inch f8 apochromat. It was a six inch f8 Newt of course. It certainly stopped people bragging about the telescopes they had 🙂.

Out at 7.18 pm but didnt pick up Venus until 9.13pm due to 80% cloud moving very quickly in the high winds. I observed until 9.44pm when it set behind a distant tree! It looked fabulous in the SW 80ED, a strikingly thin crescent only 4.2% illuminated and a whopping 54.5 arcseconds, mag -4.2. I didnt see Mercury due to a layer of thin cloud, and of course it wasn't that dark, civil dusk not occurring until 22.05pm. Attached pick is a screen shot from SkySafari pro 6 taken at the time.

I think these look really cool, and they remind me of my youth. The experience and image you get looking through one of these is quite something, like stepping back in time. It would also be good to compare the f15 with my SW 80ED, though the experience would be akin to comparing a Questar with a Meade ETX90 !. I can just get away with having my SW 80ED set up on the AZ5 in the lounge, but I fear my wife might notice if I swapped the 80ED with one of these beauties 😄. I dont want one, I dont want one, I dont/do want one, I do want one, aaarrrggghhh!

Don't miss this opportunity this evening if you have clear sky, it's only a little closer ( 1deg 14') tomorrow evening at closest approach.

I was fortunate too yesterday evening. I managed to pick up Venus in the 80ED at 8.15 pm by off setting from the sun when it was below the top of my observatory wall. It really is shrinking rapidly and the cusps are starting to 'creep' further round the disk. Realised by 9.40 a tree in the distance was in they way of me seeing Mercury so I grabbed my 10x50s and went rapidly up the road where I may see it. At 9.45 across some open ground I could see Venus with Mercury below right of it, just over three degrees away. The spectacle made a nice framing in the 10x50s before I walked back home. I was in time to see Venus in the telescope going down behind the offending tree on my horizon at 10 pm. Mercury is less than half the distance from Venus this evening and a little closer tomorrow (Friday) before it starts moving higher in the sky away from Venus.

Thanks Stu. I was looking last evening around 10pm and never saw Mercury, I had forgotten all about it! By 10pm I wouldn't have seen it anyway as by then Mercury would have been behind cloud. I'm glad you saw it. Hopefully many of us will have the opportunity this evening as the weather looks to be set fair for many of us.

This is the start of Mercury's 'fly by' of Venus, the closest approach being on May 22nd when they are around a degree or so apart at closest approach. At 9pm this evening, Venus will be at an altitude of 18 degrees ( in Yorkshire ) and Mercury will be at 3.6 degrees from it, in the 5 o'clock position from Venus. By 10 pm the sky will be quite dark and the pair will be easily seen in binoculars or a small scope. With Venus now over 52 arcsseconds in diam, the crescent is easy to see in 10x50 binoculars. Mercury is 6 arcseconds in diam, 72.5% ill and m -0.7. Venus is m -4.3 and 6.5% ill.

I looked not long ago and the Jumbo Pocket Atlas doesn't appear to be available new, only on the used market for silly prices.

Fabulous images 👍. The Sunbow is beautiful.

Of course you are right John. Where I live, it wouldn't be much use having any scope bigger than 6 inches for planetary most of the time. I sometimes use my 80mm when even the 120 is too much for the seeing. Of course this could explain why Mike does so well, only using a 3.9 inch 🤣

Thanks Peter, I think you are right, I hadn't grasped what you were saying 🙂. I put it down to not being able to come up and see you at TAC for so long 😁.

I agree that seeing can be a leveler of course Peter, bit its not the whole story. At the extremes it is, if the seeing is so bad you cant see any on belts on Jupiter with any scope they will all be useless for planetary on such a night. But in my view, it's not true to say that 'most other things being equal' applies on nights when seeing is not so extreme. On less extreme nights other things do come into play. Things like; the quality of optics, the observers eyesight, the observers experience and many other factors will all have an effect. Even in the best seeing, what mags can be used, and what can be observed by different observers is still affected by the same things - all be it to a lesser degree. Other than at the extremes of seeing, the observers experience/ability and the quality of optics are the two factors I would say mostly influences what magnifications can be usefully employed - and of course what can actually be observed.

Blimey, I hope I havent damaged my SW 80ED, l used over x200 on Venus a couple of days ago !? 😫

A good thought provoking post Mike. It's interesting to read the responses to it with some people clearly not sharing your views on the use of higher magnification. I seldom usefully use mags of up to x800, but I have done so, and might again in the future. However, unlike some, I am willing to accept that it's possible that some observers may have a better observing eye than I have, they may be a better observer than I am and even use better optics, and many are even better artists than me 😁. I have no trouble though in admiting that just because I dont do something - someone else maybe able to do it. Anyway Mike, you are in good company. People questioned the great William Herschel when he claimed, correctly, that he had used powers of over x1000 ! Mike is quite right that we shouldn't be limited by the myths of observing propagated by people being afraid to push the boundaries.

Not guilty Jock, it must have been someone else. If I reccommended any phone holder it would be the Celestron XYZ (I think!) and is the one I have. 😊

Bad CA with your Tak Jock - only joking! 😄

I'm with you every evening it clear Mike, including last evening. Did you manage to get up for the planets this morning?

Fabulous scope and mount John, and I'm not biased in any way! 🙂

For Castor, the secondary looks white/pink to me, never seen any hint of yellow in it. The different colour bias in each eye is fairly common as far as I'm aware. I'd suggest using a binoviewer and let the brain work it out. Also of course the colour casts of some optics and eyepiece can play a part. Personaly, I dont think it matters if folks have different perceptions of colour - as long as you take this into account when reading other people's descriptions of doubles.

Well Mike, that's a mighty relief for all of us I'm sure! 🤮

Sounds like you had an excellent evening Mike, great drawings. I was just suprised you only included three pics of your scope 😄.

Went out last evening to observe Bailly again, and what a difference a day makes! ( well, 23 hours and 42 mts to be exact ) The first pic is Bailly to Schickard taken yesterday ( 6th ) and the one underneath the one I posted on 5th. Both crops from single frames.

I've reproducing the colour images on the original post with mono images, using the same frame - I've just removed the colour. I think they are better, particularly the close up, the originals had a lot of CA due to the seeing and the colour of the Moon was a bit naff anyway because of the haze around the Moon. My laptop won't allow me to edit the pics on my posts for some reason, though I can image the words from my smartphone - have no access on the phone to my images.