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Mercury 23rd April


Paz

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I was planning a DSO session this evening when I noticed on Sky Safari that Mercury looked a long way from the sun. It was 9.35pm and Mercury was still nearly 5 degrees up with the sun over 10 degrees down. I don't have a low westerly horizon but I realised if I got in the car immediately and drove around to a nearby spot I could be looking for it within 5 minutes and it will have dropped less than 1 degree in that time. I headed out, with no time to get a little scope or even binoculars.

I park up and look for Capella. Mercury is straight down from there to the horizon and right a bit. I guess it's at around 4 degrees by now and there's a tree line a few hundred yards away. I can't see it and think I'm too late.

I try to spot M45 which is a nearby marker but can't see it in the remaining sunlight. I trace back down from Capella again and also across in a line from Betelgeuse through Aldebaran to triangulate the right spot and then I see it! A brown/orangish looking star!

I get a clear view of it for a few minutes before it hits the tree line and starts twinkling through the branches.

My success rate with Mercury is not great, I've tried many times and most times have been fails.

A great session that lasted a few minutes with no scope and no binoculars. I scrap the plan to go out later with a scope and instead just appreciate this.

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Well done! Mercury is always a tricky one to see and the next 2 weeks are about as good as it gets. I believe the greatest elongation is on 29 April but the key is to have clear horizon in the northwest and no clouds of course. On 21-st I went out with my portable kit and could spot it about 30 mins after sunset, from about 8:45pm when it was still 10 degrees up. Worth having a look with a telescope from your clear spot if you have the chance. I could just about see the half-disc shape at x80.

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2 hours ago, Nik271 said:

Well done! Mercury is always a tricky one to see and the next 2 weeks are about as good as it gets. I believe the greatest elongation is on 29 April but the key is to have clear horizon in the northwest and no clouds of course. On 21-st I went out with my portable kit and could spot it about 30 mins after sunset, from about 8:45pm when it was still 10 degrees up. Worth having a look with a telescope from your clear spot if you have the chance. I could just about see the half-disc shape at x80.

That is useful to know, I'm pretty bad at looking out for events like this in advance. I'll get a simple set up ready and if the chance arises I'll give it a go with a scope. 

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Seen it for last two nights but toniight was best views. 

Not getting great resolution but then I am only using my g&g 60mm frac. 

Best two picturesattached. The phone eyepiece efforts were blurry and smeared.

20220422_213429.thumb.jpg.cd0d7b4a08f03e1f05f72d6343db0c42.jpg20220423_214220.thumb.jpg.f626adcfa2219d77d4ae5f388c3be46f.jpg

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