Mercury with 5" scope?

[stanko]

While I'm waiting for days to get a clear sky, I'm thinking what my next target could be. Is Mercury too small to get a decent image with a 5" SC? And is it currently too low for imaging (because of atmospheric turbulences)?

[DirkSteele]

Mercury is small full stop regardless of aperture used. You will certainly be able to see the phases that it shows (just like the moon and Venus), but don't expect too much in the way of surface markings and interesting detail. As for imaging, Mercury is always low on the horizon as it never strays far from the Sun from our perspective, as such you will be fighting an uphill battle, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[DirkSteele]

I was thinking more about this thread last night and there is an item you can consider which may aid you in your quest to image Mercury. It is called an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector. One I have heard good things about is the Pierro Astro model. You can find out a lot more about them here ( http://pierro-astro.co.uk/ ) including how they work and contact information if you have any more questions.

I believe some pretty positive results of objects lower on the horizon have been achieved with such devices.

Good luck and clear skies,

[stanko]

thanks a lot! I didn't know that such a corrector exists. I will try what I can do without corrector first as soon as the clouds go away

[Guy Wells]

In my 114mm it is a orange dot. Bit boring really.

[Pete Presland]

i imaged Venus and Mercury last night, never were very high above the houses so both were bouncing around alot when viewed through the webcam on the PC. Saturn looked pretty good though!