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Venus and Mercury

legion48

By legion48
in Observing - Planetary

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Tantalus

Tantalus

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My first time for Mercury tonight as well. I've been trying for almost a week but the clouds have been conspiring to make it difficult. Also caught Venus in the same field with 16x60 bins.

I was hoping to get my scope on the pair, but by the time the clouds cleared, they were both behind houses. I was tempted to set the scope up on a street corner where I could see between terraces, but decided it was probably not a good idea - Oh well!, there'll always be other opportunities...

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Cazagee

Cazagee

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I saw Mercury for the first time in my life tonight.:D It was in the same field of view in my 10x60 bino's as Venus and when the sky darkened a bit later, I saw it naked eye!

First time for me too! I was really pleased to see it! Spotted Venus first as it was so bright, then there to the right was Mercury.:( I checked out Stellarium to confirm it! Didn't have time to set up my scope and I forgot all about my binos so it was naked eye for me. I did manage to capture a photo though.

Carol:)

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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I was about to start a thread about this but now i dont have to. Yesterday evening at approx 8:30pm i spotted Venus shining to the W. I got my 20x90 bins out to have a look. Clouds were rolling in from the west so i didnt have much time to observe. To the right of Venus i spotted a small point of light. For some reason i concluded that it was not a background star but a planet. A planet close to the sun after sunset..............it could only have been Mercury. Later on i checked with Stellerium and found out that it was indeed Mercury beside Venus. I was CHUFFED.

I have never seen Mercury before..........let alone in the same FOV as Venus.

Brilliant.

Weather looks promising for tonight. Gonna have another look and try to image both.

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DarkerSky

DarkerSky

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Congratulations to all who have spotted Mercury. It really is a special sight alongside Venus. I was thrilled when I saw the pairing for the first time on Friday.

I have heard that only about 1% of the world's population have ever knowingly seen Mercury. Puts us in a pretty elite group!

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skywatcher2

skywatcher2

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got my first ever glimps of mercury tonight well happy using celstron nexstar slt awsome but thats with added palution from liverpool city lights.

need a filter of some kind can any one surgest one for my nexstar please thanks john

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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It's amazing how many of us got our first observation of Mercury on the same day. The fact we got both Mercury and Venus in the same FOV is outstanding.

I feel like i am not a memeber of an elite club.......................

Although iwould not want to be a member of any club that has me as a menber.

Pretty blumming fantastic though....................Venus and Mercury at the same time in the same FOV.

Surely that is a rare event.

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cootuk

cootuk

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I tried to find Mercury last week without success, but tonight it was clearly visible even to the naked eye.

So tonight my kid and I saw Venus, then Mercury, Mars high up, then across to Saturn, and finally the Orion Nebula.

Then a quick naked eye scan around with a Google Skymap on my phone.

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JonH

JonH

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Sadly missed out on the Venus and Mercury Show last night. Venus was looking good but a tree took out Mercury denying me the double :)

Made up for it later, though, with a great view of Saturn at 500X.

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Smoore

Smoore

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Managed to get them both on the scope yesterday, really wasn't expecting much but wanted to see them. Could just make out Mercury had a phase and a brownish hue, made a clear disc out of Venus.

Took video of them on the digital camera (just held it to eyepiece) the camera picked up more detail than my eye could which is opposite to what I've found with other planets, anyone else found this? Image shows very basic surface detail on Mercury (the bit directly facing the Sun brighter than surrounding area). Was amazed to see any detail at all really.

Well it was the first time I ever saw Mercury at all and Venus as anything other than naked eye. I've now seen all planets on a scope in some fashion or other, so was a nice achievement.

post-18803-133877438455_thumb.jpg

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skybadger

skybadger

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I caught Mercury and Venus during the day today. A quick goto to Venus, centre and off to mercury. While venus was easy, mercury was hard in midday daylight and disappeared at the slightest loss of focus. Flushed with success I then moved on to Jupiter and there it was... very low contrast though.

What filters would be best to pull out the detail ?

Cheers

Mike

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