Competing the set

[The Warthog]

I know that Neptune is to be eclipsed by the Moon two nights from now, but I'm an impatient sort, and as we had a night of exceptional clarity, I decided to find Neptune now, and not wait for a future event that may be clouded out.

I printed out two charts from Cartes du Ciel, one with a general view encompassing the Moon, Jupiter and Neptune, and one showing the end of Capricorn where Neptune is, with the finder and ep circles for my scope. I wrote the RA and Dec for the Moon and Neptune on the chart, and went outside to pursue my quarry.

I put the finder on the Moon, and then moved the scope over about 1h 45m, and moved the declination 3 degrees north. I then had a look in the finder, but wasn't sure what I was looking at, so I wiggled the scope around, and moved it up and down in declination a bit, as I had difficulty reading the scale. Finally I went back to where I had first made my offset, and decided that I was probably looking at delta and gamma Capricorni, and looked north a little. At this point, my night vision must have kicked back in after I had looked at the Moon, and I could see the line of 42, 44, and 45 Capricorn, which I had been looking for. I then used those stars in the eyepiece field to locate Neptune.

I can assure you that I did a lot of running back and forth between the chart and the ep, but I am abso-bl**dy-lutely sure of what I was looking at. I have now seen all the planets. Neptune was a faint, greenish point in my scope. Not impressive at all. About the same as Uranus, which I saw a few years ago.

by the time I had seen and confirmed Neptune, the Moon had hidden behind my apple tree, and was washing out most of the possible DSOs, so I packed it in.

It was a good night for me.

[dogfish]

Great stuff WH. I only need Mercury to complete my set, but it's always too close to the sun

Martin

[algol]

i had the same mad dash adventure a few nights back WH and in my ep it was very very faint and blueish.

[barkis]

Congratulations on completion of your planet hunt WH. Your achievement will hopefully encourage others to attempt the feat, which is no mean one. Well done sir. :salute:

Ron.

[The Warthog]

Great stuff WH. I only need Mercury to complete my set, but it's always too close to the sun

Martin

Spring evenings are the best time to look for Mercury. I have only had Mercury in binoculars, never in my scope.

[lunator]

WH

Congrats on getting Neptune.

Neptune is the only planet missing from my list and I do intend to observe it at Kelling

Cheers

Ian

[algol]

Great stuff WH. I only need Mercury to complete my set, but it's always too close to the sun

Martin

Spring evenings are the best time to look for Mercury. I have only had Mercury in binoculars, never in my scope.

i've had it in the scope WH and it looked like an extra from war of the worlds, a third green, red and blue. dunno what caused that effect