Mercury 26/3/17

[mikeDnight]

After being thoroughly clouded out by vapour trails that lingered densely around the Sun, blocking any chance of viewing Venus at 1%, I was treated to a not so good view of Mercury. The seeing, though reasonably steady, was poisoned by a low lying mesh of aircraft vomit. Still, beggars can't be chooser! It's a diagonal view so north is top and preceeding is to the left.

Mike

 

[John]

The aircraft vomit filter seems to work OK Mike

I've not viewed Mercury with a scope for a while but spotted it easily enough with binoculars a few nights back.

 

[mikeDnight]

50 minutes ago, John said:

The aircraft vomit filter seems to work OK Mike

I've not viewed Mercury with a scope for a while but spotted it easily enough with binoculars a few nights back.

 

That's funny, as last night I mentioned to Paul, that if someone would invent a vapour trail filter theyed make millions ££££.

To be honest John,  Mercury looked awful in the murk, and got worse as it descended. Paul and I had both Taks, the DC and the DL alongside eachother, and the views through both were equally bad. A sharp gibbous phase was easily seen in both, as was the hint of a dusky marking in the north, and a less obvious and smaller marking in the south. Both scopes were held back by atmospheric dispersion as the magnification increased.

Mike

 

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, John said:

The aircraft vomit filter seems to work OK Mike

I've not viewed Mercury with a scope for a while but spotted it easily enough with binoculars a few nights back.

 

Here's a piccy for you, courtesy of Paul! ?

[johnfosteruk]

Nicely sketched Mike considering the aircraft Vomit.

[Pete Presland]

Lovey sketch, just like the view I had through my C9.25 tonight as well.

[Richard Hather]

Lovely sketch as always Mike, sometimes you just have to make do with the Sky you have.

Richard

[mikeDnight]

Attached is a map of Mercury by the IAU. The CM at the time of observation I believe was around 248°, so it seems likely the albedo features I thought I was seeing do actually correspond with the features on the IAU map. It might not be much in the greater scheme of things, but it doesn't half give me a buzz when my sketches, however wraith like, correspond to reality! ☺

Mike

 

[dweller25]

I’m going to have a go at observing Mercury for the first time ever asap 👍

Edited April 9, 2023 by dweller25

[Mandy D]

2 hours ago, dweller25 said:

I’m going to have a go at observing Mercury for the first time ever asap 👍

I finally got to see Mercury for the first time on 6th and 7th of April this year. I couldn't get the big Dob on it s it was too low and I had a wall in the way, but I did grab a very poor photo of it with the 600 mm lens.

Good luck with your observations. It is very cloudy here, tonight.