Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Planetary Parade


Recommended Posts

This was mentioned on the BBC News this afternoon and skies are clear so I got my trusty 10x50s out. Venus was bright and obvious. I felt like I could detect its phase but wasn’t 100% that 10x would be enough to see this? The bright crescent Moon, showing some nice Earthshine, looked fab even with the low magnification of the bins. This led easily onto the small orange Mars. I struggled to find Jupiter and Mercury while scanning the horizon from my garden. I went indoors, to an upstairs bedroom, and managed to spot them just them above the roof tops against the orange sunset sky. They were sitting almost level with each other. At this point the sky was too bright to spot Uranus and my youngest daughter needed tucking into bed. A few short minutes later, Jupiter and Mercury were too low to be seen. The sky had darkened enough that I could now detect Uranus and a few stars in Aries of similar magnitude, all in the same FOV as Venus. My 11 year old son joined me outside as he’d been told about the planetary parade in school. He enjoyed looking through the bins and I was able to direct him to Uranus which all the required school boy humour. 
821C121F-BE42-4CDD-998D-F18B99CFDAA7.thumb.jpeg.d86f5780e0301b721901b7d8fbbe2664.jpegE6994ACF-EF1B-4DBF-9D9E-12DCAFC932BC.thumb.jpeg.ed4fff402960719d129b7f567ee19942.jpeg461226E7-D1DA-4274-8C86-D400BAE77E1C.thumb.jpeg.6d6ab43e8e6d1fed1681b47c3dada7af.jpeg

  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I’ve never tried to view Uranus with my 10x50’s. I just presumed it would be a futile exercise. Well I’ll be trying it in the future. Thanks.

Mrs G has seen Neptune through 10x50s - under definitely darker skies though, so Uranus will be easily visible 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All i went for was the moon.  Saturn was already below the horizon and Jupiter was behind the trees.  I should spend some time and go after Venus with a filter to tone it down.  Completely forgot about mars.  Oh well since i get up at 0400 there wasn't a lot of time to observe anyway 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
8 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Nice report, is that a spa I see in the background? I would have been observing while sitting in the spa, how cool…hot would that be? 😁

Haha it is indeed. Binoculars steam up pretty quickly in there but it’s good observing with the old Mk. 1 eyeballs in there!

Edited by Littleguy80
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 27/03/2023 at 22:53, Littleguy80 said:

This was mentioned on the BBC News this afternoon and skies are clear so I got my trusty 10x50s out. Venus was bright and obvious. I felt like I could detect its phase but wasn’t 100% that 10x would be enough to see this? The bright crescent Moon, showing some nice Earthshine, looked fab even with the low magnification of the bins. This led easily onto the small orange Mars. I struggled to find Jupiter and Mercury while scanning the horizon from my garden. I went indoors, to an upstairs bedroom, and managed to spot them just them above the roof tops against the orange sunset sky. They were sitting almost level with each other. At this point the sky was too bright to spot Uranus and my youngest daughter needed tucking into bed. A few short minutes later, Jupiter and Mercury were too low to be seen. The sky had darkened enough that I could now detect Uranus and a few stars in Aries of similar magnitude, all in the same FOV as Venus. My 11 year old son joined me outside as he’d been told about the planetary parade in school. He enjoyed looking through the bins and I was able to direct him to Uranus which all the required school boy humour. 


821C121F-BE42-4CDD-998D-F18B99CFDAA7.thumb.jpeg.d86f5780e0301b721901b7d8fbbe2664.jpegE6994ACF-EF1B-4DBF-9D9E-12DCAFC932BC.thumb.jpeg.ed4fff402960719d129b7f567ee19942.jpeg461226E7-D1DA-4274-8C86-D400BAE77E1C.thumb.jpeg.6d6ab43e8e6d1fed1681b47c3dada7af.jpeg

I'm new here and just discovering the star world, this looks like a great experience. Thanks for sharing this one! By the way now I understand much better how it works, because at my college nothing concrete is said about it, moreover, I actually use content because I find it much easier to do these antigone writings; and the fact that I link it with stargazing inspires me even more!

Edited by mgaaeure
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, mgaaeure said:

I'm new here and just discovering the star world, this looks like a great experience. Thanks for sharing this one!

Welcome to SGL! Observing reports are a great source of inspiration on here for me too. Happy observing 😊

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.