Venus Beautiful NOW

[Alan White]

Yayyy, success after last nights failure.
I took a walk away from the garden on open land and caught Venus and Mercury tonight in 10x50's.
Very pleased as today planet tally is 5.
Mars, Saturn and Jupiter to SE at 3.15 am and then Venus and Mercury tonight.
Very pleased with that little haul.


 

[DaveL59]

got a short look at Venus in the binos after she dropped below a contrail and before the neighbours high fence stole her away, but no chance to see Mercury from here for same reasons, so many contrails over West and barely moved so frustrating viewing tonight.

[Waddensky]

Went to the sea for a nice unobstructed view to the NW, had a wonderful sight of Venus and Mercury in the evening twilight. First in the 10x50 - with Venus showing its crescent shape surprisingly easy, probably because of the bright background sky - and later also without optical aid as two bright pinpoints about 6 degrees above the horizon. Nice twilight colours, too.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

5 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Yayyy, success after last nights failure.
I took a walk away from the garden on open land and caught Venus and Mercury tonight in 10x50's.
Very pleased as today planet tally is 5.
Mars, Saturn and Jupiter to SE at 3.15 am and then Venus and Mercury tonight.
Very pleased with that little haul.


 

I didn't think about that Alan. I viewed jupiter and Saturn at 4.30 this morning. Venus and Mercury tonight, although my Mercury viewing was very poor I got a brief look at it. That makes 4 for me today 🙂

now I have an idea where Mercury will be tomorrow night I can make a plan of attack. Just hope the weather plays nice.

 

Baz

[Barry-W-Fenner]

And now ISS has just gone over. I managed to track it in the finder but not in the eye piece unfortunately.
Great morning and nights observing so far!

 

[Stu]

Got them both here in the Genesis and Vixen. Both in the same FOV in the Gen, then high power with the Vixen. Mercury showing a lot of atmospheric CA, but the phase was clearly visible. One of the few times I’ve seen Mercury in a scope and I think the others have been solar transits.

Venus looking lovely now, such a fine crescent. Hope tomorrow is clear too!

[mikeDnight]

I managed a very nice, prolonged observation of Venus late this afternoon, 24/5/20. The sky began to clear and between the clouds I picked up Venus at 17.07UT in the 100DZ. I first found it in the 6X30 finder and quickly centred it in the field of the 35mm Eudiascopic at 23X.  Clouds kept hindering the view initially but eventually I could increase the magnification, first to 64X with the 12.5mm Ultima, then 107X with the 7.5mm Ultima. The view was beautiful at 107X with the dark side of Venus globe standing out against a brighter blue background sky. As the Sun disappeared behind the trees the shimmering image settled somewhat, allowing me to increasing the power to 235X with the 3.4mm HR. The higher power and slightly darker sky background enhanced the ultra fine horns which extended past the meridian for some distance, more obviously along the southern limb than the north, but still evident on both. If you can keep the Sun at a safe distance its well worth hunting down in late afternoon daylight.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by mikeDnight

[JeremyS]

Just now, mikeDnight said:

I managed a very nice, prolonged observation of Venus late this afternoon, 24/5/20. The sky began to clear and between the clouds I picked up Venus at 17.07UT in the 100DZ. I first found it in the 6X30 finder and quickly centred it in the field of the 35mm Eudiascopic at 23X.  Clouds kept hindering the view initially but eventually I could increase the magnification, first to 64X with the 12.5mm Ultima, then 107X with the 7.5mm Ultima. The view was beautiful at 107X with the dark side of Venus globe standing out against a brighter blue background sky. As the Sun disappeared behind the trees the shimmering image settled somewhat, allowing me to increasing the power to 235X with the 3.4mm HR. The higher power and slightly darker sky background enhanced the ultra fine horns which extended past the meridian for some distance, more obviously along the southern limb than the north, but still evident on both. If you can keep the Sun at a safe distance its well worth hunting down in late afternoon daylight.

 

Great stuff Mike. Interesting about the extensions.

Pity you had to keep the magnification so low though 🙂

[mikeDnight]

9 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Great stuff Mike. Interesting about the extensions.

Pity you had to keep the magnification so low though 🙂

Makes perfect sense really, as 94% of the far side is in full daylight, its only reasonable to expect to see the fringes of the atmosphere tickled with light from the far side. The horns were very fine and flickered in and out of view. 

[Waddensky]

Tonight, the (very) thin crescent of the Moon is a few degrees east of the pair Venus-Mercury. A beautiful sight!

Edit: oh, and C/2020 F8 (SWAN) is in the neighbourhood too. But that's a tough one probably.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Waddensky

[Captain Scarlet]

Just got Venus and Moon 4% each very special view through 12x50 where Venus phase perfectly clear. Too bright for Mercury yet...

[John]

I caught the 2.1 day old Moon, 3.5% illuminated Venus and Mercury about 8:30 this evening and observed them for about 30 minutes before they dipped behind the hedges. Lovely sight, all three. I was using my Vixen ED102 F/6.5 on this occasion.

 

[markse68]

Venus is amazingly crisp now it’s almost extinguished isn’t it! I barlowed the 6mm ortho that came with my telementor for a whopping 280x and apart from the crazy floaters there she was crisp and clear and shimmering in the atmospherics! No hint of CA or anything. Mercury was less distinct but it’s so tiny, but I could tell it had a phase- maybe 50%? The moon grew more and more beautiful as the detail rose out of the increasing contrast and looked amazing as it set behind criss-crossed cranes over in docklands. A lovely start to the evenings fun  This telementor really makes me smile- just dial in the coords from ss and swing it round and there Venus was- completely invisible to the eye at 8:30ish 

[Stu]

Lovely wasn’t it Mark! Caught Venus, Mercury and the Moon in the Genesis and the Vixen side by side, widefield and higher power. Very nice.

[John]

I think this apparition of Venus and more lately Mercury have been the best that I can recall observing

 

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, John said:

I think this apparition of Venus and more lately Mercury have been the best that I can recall observing

 

Me too John. Absolutely captivating!

[Captain Scarlet]

33 minutes ago, John said:

I think this apparition of Venus and more lately Mercury have been the best that I can recall observing

yes I agree too though my experience is somewhat less than most! If this is what it's always like, yes please! Though I suspect I've been spoiled by this time...

Anyway, my photos of the trio from SW Ireland with an obliging cloud bank to provide backdrop:

 

[Stu]

48 minutes ago, John said:

I think this apparition of Venus and more lately Mercury have been the best that I can recall observing

 

 Agreed! 👍👍

[markse68]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely wasn’t it Mark! Caught Venus, Mercury and the Moon in the Genesis and the Vixen side by side, widefield and higher power. Very nice.

Yes it was indeed Stu- quite different from last couple of evenings! Warm, little cloud and no wind- near perfect conditions for the great view

[Stu]

8 hours ago, markse68 said:

Venus is amazingly crisp now it’s almost extinguished isn’t it! I barlowed the 6mm ortho that came with my telementor for a whopping 280x and apart from the crazy floaters there she was crisp and clear and shimmering in the atmospherics! No hint of CA or anything. Mercury was less distinct but it’s so tiny, but I could tell it had a phase- maybe 50%? The moon grew more and more beautiful as the detail rose out of the increasing contrast and looked amazing as it set behind criss-crossed cranes over in docklands. A lovely start to the evenings fun  This telementor really makes me smile- just dial in the coords from ss and swing it round and there Venus was- completely invisible to the eye at 8:30ish 

Great fun aren’t they? I’ve had mine up to x280 with a Nagler Zoom too, was an amazing good view considering the tiny extra pupil!