4.3% illuminated Moon - 24th May 2020

[Stu]

I’m sure many of us enjoyed this sight. I picked it up around 9pm after putting the short person to bed and having dinner. I was using the Genesis with a 56mm Plossl and the Vixen FL102S with a Leica Zoom; the former giving a 5.6 degree field, basically a mega finder and the latter between x50 and x100, quite well suited to the conditions. Both were on the Rowan AZ100, ideal for the dual scope views I love.

A surprising amount of detail was visible on the Moon. Mare Crisium was about half illuminated and then there was a run of four lovely craters; Langrenus, Vendelinus, Petavius and Furnerius, all basically on the terminator (not much room to be anywhere else!)

Of course I also saw Venus as a beautiful crescent. The seeing was quite wobbly down that low, but still plenty good enough to get a good view. Probably the finest I’ve viewed Venus over the years, fingers crossed for a few more looks perhaps? In the Genesis at low power it was pretty stunning too, a tiny perfect crescent, very bright and sharp.

Mercury was better than the other night too, a clear phase showing which is changing quickly it appears. Down to 61.9% now and you could see that. Nice to get Mercury and the Moon in the same field of view in the Genesis. The 56mm Plossl seems to behave much better than the 40mm Paragon clone I have which shows a lot of field curvature with such a short focal length. It needs a 41mm Panoptic really, need to treat it sometime!

Not a great picture but it shows what I am referring to at least. Nice evening, and pleased to see the planets again. As John said in another thread, I reckon this is the best I’ve seen them, and I’ve certainly never seen a phase on Mercury before.

[John]

Great report Stu

That's a much better pic than I managed to get !

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great report and photo Stu. I missed this event as I was watching the talk on zoom. I will try and catch something tonight.