Mercury through the walnut tree.

[alan potts]

Last night as I set up the Meade 12 inch, I thought Mercury, there's a good idea, knowing it was close to it's maximum elongation. The scope slewed to a small gap between two massive walnut trees and pointed at the upslope of a near by hill. That didn't please me to much as I don't lose out too much in that direction to land but Mercury is setting at a very accute angle at the moment making it a very testing object, not that it is ever easy.

The only time I can ever recall seeing Mercury in anything like a dark sky was in Bali Indonesea where the setiing horizon was in fact the sea and being where it is on Earth allows the planet to set at a steeper angle, well at least it did on that occasion.

So tonight I got outside good and early and tracked it down very shortly after sunset with the scope being fixed it remembers where it is when turned back on, even then it was not far above the top of the hill and still being seen with walnut branch filtration which does absolutely nothing for the image. Now it was time for a serenade from two local cats before either a fight or something else cats do, a lot of noise that's for sure.  Of course with any object this low down you are never going to get a fabulous view as you are looking through so much atmosphere and it was even very difficult to see what the phase was as I dare not go much above X145 with the 21mm Ethos, I thought it was at about 3/4 phase which was not too bad a guess as it was 80% on checking, the tree sure is no help maybe it has outstayed it's welcome.

As it was setting it was fairly bright and clear to see in the 70mm piggyback scope and the 50mm finder, so a clear horizon will certainly give a very good chance of a view, the trouble is having a clear view that low down, few of us have.

So not a professional observation by any stretch of the imagination but it is very nice to get another, if short look at the innermost planet that flys around the sun in .24 of a year. If you have a clear sky and more to the point clear view to the south west low down, have a look at the salmon pink world.

alan

[John]

Nice report Alan

I've managed to get a scope on Mercury a few times over the years but it's not always placed conveniently. When I have, it's reminded me of a mini version of Venus

Your 18" might be capable of picking up Pluto - I know Mark (MDstuart) has captured it with sketching with his 16".

Of course it's just a minor planet these days, despite the fascinating images recently returned

[StarSapling]

A couple of years ago, I got a fantastic view of Mercury, near the zenith, during the day.  The image was sharp and I could make out a couple of albedo features.  A whole different animal from the tiny, dancing, blurry image seen at dawn or dusk.

If you try to observe Mercury during the day, be extremely, extremely careful.  The last thing you want to do is sweep across the Sun by accident!  When I observe Mercury or Venus during the day, I arrange my equipment so I'm observing from a shaded location, so there is no chance of an unintentional encounter with the unfiltered Sun.

[Piero]

Nice report Alan  

I saw Mercury only one time with my ex bins 15x70. It appeared as a little bright star at that time located a bit below Venus.

No details at 15x, but still a nice view!

[alan potts]

Made another visit tonight but got onto Mercury long before the sun had set and as a direct result before the walnut tree gave me extra issues. Managed to get up to x304   on the 12 inch Meade, which in truth you need on this tiny world. In total I spent about an hour on the target before i got fed up with the twigs and branches getting in the way.

At that point I slewed right round and had a look at the Moon showing a very similar phase. This made me laugh, I viewed through the piggyback scope for about 3 minutes and I soon got an insight as to the orientation of the image shown by this APO as a Boeing 737 flew in front the Moon upside down :eek: .

Alan

[jabeoo1]

Nice viewing report & discussion everyone!  Don't forget the transit this coming year

From here in the UK on May 9th 2016 at Noon (ish) - 19:40 (ish).  

I am booking the day off work and hoping for a glimpse in Ha, its these transits that really hit the mechanics of our solar system home.  Whilst watching the latter stages of the solar eclipse the smooth movement of the spheres was majestic. 

[faulksy]

nice report alan, i have never seen mercury but seen all the others including pluto a few times, realy need to bag this one. cheers alan

[cotterless45]

Nice report Alan. I observed Mercury just the once. It involved lugging everything upstairs and opening the bedroom window facing west. I didn't feel at all comfortable and felt like the ultimate nosey neighbour !

Nick.

[timwetherell]

I've seen mercury quite a few times but mostly it was a ball of mush due to evening or dawn atmospheric conditions. The one exception was 5am one morning in Australia when I was woken by an earth tremor. There was quite a dense fog but I thought I'd give it a bash anyway and the view was amazing. I could clearly see patches of differing colour on the surface. If you have a still foggy dawn it may be a better time than you think to get the scope out!

[alan potts]

Tim,

We often have fog at dawn but most times too thick to even see the sun though properly, I sort of live on the side of a massive bowl and it is a bit of a fog magnet we also have many nights with little or no wind, I have been to worse places.

Alan

[timwetherell]

We often have fog at dawn but most times too thick to even see the sun though properly, 

Yeah, I guess fog is a symptom of still air but not much good if it's a pea-soup kinda fog

[Cosmic Geoff]

I have seen Mercury three times in daylight. It is not the easiest daytime planet (Venus is) but visible under the right conditions. I used a 127mm Mak SLT with 25mm eyepiece, "solar system aligned" using the waning moon, and with a building shading the scope from the Sun.  This was in a town.  Much easier than trying to catch it at dawn or dusk. 

The same method works with other planets. (never seen Saturn by day - too dim) Should be good if you have shift work or need the extra observing time offered by a clear day.

[alan potts]

I tend to try and catch it with the 12 inch Meade from my observatory, it is easy enough with goto. The trouble is so often it is setting at such an accute angle, even from here, though I have picked it up a few times before the sun is down completely, a few years back it was favourable and I had some nice views around the X270 mark which you need really. I have used the Mak 180mm as well on it.

Alan