I am SO glad you said that. I had considered saying that exact same thing, but thought it would sound too self-serving. But since you said it, I can comfortably say that I agree with your reasoning.

That picture was 2nd to last of about 15 pictures, and it was only in the last 2 that I actually saw Mercury at all.


aside...this is my 3000th post!! Not that I'm keeping count or I would have started a BABBling thread about it.

I see it occasionally in the Eastern sky in the morning, but I've never seen it in the evening. I have a fabulous view of the Eastern sky from my highrise balcony.

Two hours ago with Canon Rebel:

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When I am done here I think I will go create something from metal.

Nice. What a beautiful thread this has turned into!

Another photo op later in the year

If I've done my homework right it's an evening event. 4 days past midsummer so it might be difficult for us Northerners to get a decent view in a dark sky, should be a nice call for our upsidedown neighbours though.

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

Those are all great photos of earthshine. I saw the moon during dusk the other night and it did look great with clear earthshine while the sky was still quite bright.

I mentioned this one a while ago. It's something to put on the calendar, if you tend to forget to look up.

The 25th is a great grouping, but on the 27th, Mercury and Venus will be about 8 arcminutes apart. The week leading up to then will be interesting too, since Mercury will be much brighter, and the three planets more or less colinear.

A Thousand Pardons wrote:
Does being ToSeeked 9 months before the event count? (I was sure I was safe with that one #-o )

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

I took these two shots within a minute of eachother through the telephoto last night but couldn't resolve phase - not sure why Mercury is green but I only point and click. (It was quite low down and there were a lot of atmospherics - freezing cold wind!)

1/60 sec exposure, 400mm tele + x3 diopter eq. f19, enhanced brightness +18, contrast +26, heavily cropped, local time 19.38. Hand held, definitely need tripod for longer exposures.



Also took this one of the Moon - same set up. - 0.3MB file and it messes up the page so I've linked

Edit: US Naval Observatory - Apparent Disc of Solar System Object. Usefull little linky, plumb in object, date, and time and it gives a greyscale image. Mercury is about 1/2 phase just now. Hopefully they will be able to extend the program to include Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

Amazingly, the image I took above actually shows the phase. When I get home tonight I will post a closeup. Sorry about the image being broken yesterday, my ADSL was down.

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When I am done here I think I will go create something from metal.

Of those posted on Spaceweather, I rather liked this and this.

Friday night was new moon and Mercury, absolutely lovely.

With the anomalous clear weather we've been having here in W. Oregon, the last few nights have been exceptionally good for mid-March. I've noticed I sometimes get a short chunk of calm seeing just after sunset for about an hour before the breeze picks up again. Saturday night Saturn just POPPED into clarity for about 15 minutes: Cassini's division looked like it was inked in, and I got to show my son a really nice view, with Titan off to the side.

But the topper was actually last night. After watching Saturn for a while I swung over to Jupiter to watch it with my kid as it rose over the hill. I hadn't checked the position of the moons before hand, and with the position of the ecliptic now it slowly came up behind the trees, a dead vertical line of the moons and the planet, with the moons almost perfectly arranged symmetrically, two on each side. Man, it was like watching 2001, and I half-expected to see a monolith.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

If I turn my head to the right I can see Mercury out my window. It's one advantage to living on the 7th floor of a highrise apartment with giant panoramic windows facing south-west The gorgeous clear sky helps, too. I wish I had a scope, but with the light pollution here and a limited budget I decided to wait a bit.

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My first space mission!

SP-423 Atlas of Mercury


http://history.nasa.gov/SP-423/contents.htm

I'm so bummed. I live just about due east of LA. So when I look west
at sunset, what do you think I see? And we've been having low-level
marine layer gunk for the past week or so (except when it's been
raining ). So far, work and other activities have precluded driving
out to somewhere with a decent western horizon.

It may be too late; by 6:45 it's only about 10 degrees above the horizon. It's dropping fast.

Yeah, well, it's not like Halley, I'll have more chances. Like in 20 years when
I retire and move to New Mexico. :wink:

Too late for me - it's 9:54pm. here - and it's tipping with rain

Edit: LASCO/C3 will pick it up on the 25th March though

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

I caught Mercury a week ago tonight during a Messier Marathon my astronomy club held. I've seen it a few times before during early morning or dusk, but this was the furthest I've ever seen it out of the murky light of the sky and I was amazed at how bright it was. If I would have had the telescope up yet, I would have taken a picture, but alas, no luck.

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My Astrophotographs

It seems this planet will make a comeback in July and a far eastern elongation in November 2005. But I think it will be very difficult to see from NY city or London because the planet will perhaps be more suitable for people in Brazil or Australia

Mercury and Saturn in the morning, in mid-September, will be nice too, but you'll have to get up early.

I saw it again last night, very low down, and I was surprised by how bright it appeared. it seemed brighter than last week, but it's actually getting fainter. Maybe I was just seeing it against a darker background.

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Well it's obvious, it's bigger when it's near the horizon :^o

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

I'm not much of a morning riser.

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My Astrophotographs

Actually, that was me, not Manchurian Taikonaut. Sorry to disturb your beauty sleep.

Sorry. Was trying to cut down on what got quoted and cut the wrong part.

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My Astrophotographs

I've seen it march 13th! A fine sight. It was well aligned between two trees of the woods behind my house! I was so proud I could see it for the first time in my life, I quickly ran inside told everyone that if they wanted to see a real tricky planet to catch, it was now or maybe never in their case. Only my mother came to see. She was impressed, especially when I told her how hard it is to catch, thanks to the Sun. Too bad for the others!

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-Time is the best teacher; unfortunately it kills all of its students.-

=D> Congratulations, and welcome to the board, Iris!

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Thank you! ...but I'm here since a good time. :P I'm just no big poster.

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-Time is the best teacher; unfortunately it kills all of its students.-

Oops! Make that, "Welcome back!"

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- Learn a lot teaching others.