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Venus and Mercury now


kerrylewis

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9 minutes ago, kerrylewis said:

At around 18.00 Venus was about 9 degrees and Mercury 11 degrees above the horizon

Ah right that would explain it. That would put them behind the houses opposite. I will need to put in more effort and head out.

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31 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Good heads up, KL. They were both nicely visible to me from an upstairs window. Thanks for pointing these out, I'd have missed it otherwise. 

Great stuff! It's really satisfying when a heads up means that someone catches something that they wouldn't otherwise :icon_biggrin: 

I love seeing these inner planets whenever I can. Hope to get a chance to observe them through a scope if we get another fine evening. 

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1 hour ago, kerrylewis said:

Great stuff! It's really satisfying when a heads up means that someone catches something that they wouldn't otherwise :icon_biggrin: 

I love seeing these inner planets whenever I can. Hope to get a chance to observe them through a scope if we get another fine evening. 

Yes, indeed.  I might be mistaken, but I think this is the first time I've seen Mercury now for several years.  In fact I only recall seeing it at all a handful of times. It's a very elusive planet.  Venus on the other hand I see often, despite on occassion not looking for it intentionally. 

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12 hours ago, kerrylewis said:

Great stuff! It's really satisfying when a heads up means that someone catches something that they wouldn't otherwise :icon_biggrin: 

I love seeing these inner planets whenever I can. Hope to get a chance to observe them through a scope if we get another fine evening. 

Great stuff indeed Kerry. Please do feel free to put heads up in the the new Heads Up forum, people are following it so will get alerts to new short term events happening.

Need to try to catch these two myself soon!

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9 minutes ago, Stu said:

Great stuff indeed Kerry. Please do feel free to put heads up in the the new Heads Up forum, people are following it so will get alerts to new short term events happening.

Ok Stu. I was in two minds about where I should post - ‘heads up’ or ‘planets observing’,or both! 

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4 minutes ago, kerrylewis said:

Ok Stu. I was in two minds about where I should post - ‘heads up’ or ‘planets observing’,or both! 

I think perhaps if it is a genuine heads up, i.e. to prompt people to go have a look, then the heads up section is better. If we can get all of these types of posts into the HU forum, with members following it, then hopefully we can get some good interaction going and alerting to see specific things.

No harm in a follow up post in the Observing - Planetary section with a report or more detail.

I hope that is not confusing, we are trying to find the best way to make the section work.

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Had a look for the two planets at 18:20, from an upstairs window as well. Saw Venus then Mercury a couple of degrees above it in the 10x50s thru thin fast moving cloud at 18:23, and Venus with the naked eye a minute later. Venus disappeared behind thickening cloud by 18:27, but saw Mercury in the binoculars for a few minutes before the clouds thickened. Didn't get to see it with the naked eye, as by 18:35, clouds were covering the western sky, so I got lucky with my timing.

 

I've seen Mercury many times since the 80s, even with the naked eye, but its always been an evening elongation, usually a early March/April one like this one. Venus definitely helped this time round. And the gap in the clouds this time was fortuitous!

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I saw them both by happy accident during the week. In all my years observing I have never seen Mercury, and was amazed at how bright it was (-1 I believe?). Because it is so elusive I had always I always assumed it was a dim binocular only object, but apparently not!

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