mercury warning

[algol]

ok guys and gals just got the april issue of sky at night and it says that mercury will start to become quite visible towards the end of the month after sunset reaching furthest elongation from sun on 1st may.

it will be mag -2.4 ish and quite visible in the dusk twilight thingy.

Cool another on the checklist hopefully

[Sam]

Cool, another planet to add to the list! thanks for the warning.

[algol]

no worries mate, looks like it gets a decent height to judging by the pics.

[jgs001]

Thanks for the heads up, now if only the clouds would go away by then

[Talitha]

Thanks for the heads-up! :thumbup:

[Astroman]

This is great! Mercury is a surprisingly tough target. I got it in the EP at Grand Canyon a few years ago and casually called it out. It didn't seem like a big deal to me, having seen it a lot from Stone Haven's low horizons. But there was a big response from all over the field-and most of that was from astronomers! At least 6 that were present had never seen it in the ep before! I was stunned....and pleased. 8)

[Azelfafage]

Thanks for the news Algol 8)

Once the Sun goes behind the house on my W horizon, I can then search for it at this time with a LP eyepiece (& perhaps a coloured filter or two ) ?

Here's hoping.....

A

[Ant]

It'll be nice to see Mercury again.

I was lucky in my old house, I had really really good E S W horizons - I could see down to around 2 degree's all the way round...

I managed to get this through the 6" F5, you'll have to take my word for it that it's Mercury.

Thanks for the heads up.

Ant

[saturns_rings]

awesome news, cant wait!

[jarbi]

That's great news Algol,

The first week of may I will spend in south France in an astrocamp, so I will not miss Mercury ... when the weathergods allow of course .

cheers,

Janos

[lunator]

I have obstructed horizons atound my house and I have only seen Mercury thro' Binos whilst standing in one of the upstairs room.

I got a nice view earlier this year when I was in the US. That was also with Binos.

I will try and get a scope on it this time.

Cheers

Ian

[Sam]

Yeah - looks like I might have to go off-site as well due to trees.

[algol]

luckily there are some hills in the fields behind my house that may elevate me over any obstructions and let me have a toot.

[geoff_k]

I've seen it la fair few times and even managed to grab an image once with a refractor I used to have.

You've never seen me move so fast!

Trouble is, my western horizon is in the direction of the town, so we can but hope.

[Jimbob]

So is it gonna be appearing to the west? Near where the sun sets?

[geoff_k]

Jimbob

This is a Starry Night screen grab from the 10th May from my location at about 51 degrees North.

Only about 10 degrees above the western horizon at 9:30pm. Magnitude is usually about 0.2 but it should be easily visible although it lives up to its name and moves pretty fast.

According to Starry Night it is showing the equivalent of 1st Quarter phase.

Geoff

[Jimbob]

Ok thanks Geoff

[Astronut]

I'll going to try and see this elusive target at the upcoming star party near Salisbury, weather permitting and horizon muck permitting. Greatest eastern elongation occurs on the 14th May 2008 but on the 2nd May about 21:00 BST it will be about 11 degrees above the WNW horizon with the Pleiades about 2 degrees distant and at a 45 degree angle from Mercury above and to the right. Mag 3 or 4 stars should be visible around that time with the Sun about 3 degrees below the horizon. Should be reasonably bright but very tiny at around 6 arc seconds diameter.

I have a vague memory of seeing Mercury through a cheap refractor when I was a barely a teenager. I could just make out it wasn't stellar (slightly blurry half disc) and had a vaguely pinkish colour.

[AndrewP]

I've seen Mercury naked eye twice and through binos once but never in an EP so I'm really looking forward to this! Just got to keep fingers (and toes) crossed for the weather now.........