Timing of whole of solar system apparition events.
I've looked into if there will be any further opportunities to view another whole of solar system apparition. As it turns out, there are only three such events, and then it won't repeat for a few hundred years. Alignment is not really the right term, and I'm struggling to come up with the best term for such an "alignment" - anyone have a better term? So until I have a better term, I stick with alignment. Conjunction? Dunno. All of these events only last for a few days due to the swift movement of Mercury and the low altitude of Venus at these times.
* 1st whole of solar system viewing happens this coming mid October after sunset (Uranus rises around 7:40pm).
* 2nd event happens late April 2019 just before sunrise.
* 3rd and final event happens from late October and into early November 2019 after sunset. Venus and Mercury will also be within 2.5° of each other on October 31st too.
And then that's it for a few hundred years when all the planets, the Moon and Pluto are all visible simultaneously. Just a few days on three occasions over the next 18 months. A rare fish in deed.
I'll be starting my hunt for Pluto as soon as this bloody poor weather lets up...
I hope to get a few Pluto sessions in before mid October in an attempt to be able to single out Pluto from its surrounding star field. I've never had an urge to find Pluto - heck, it's only seeing a faint "star" within a field of other faint stars. But now I have a reason to make hunting down Pluto worth while
. I'll look into both visual and photo methods of identifying Pluto - I've got the means to do both so may as well. I've also identified an easily found 14th magnitude star to use as a test piece for attempting to view Pluto from my home in Sydney - I've easily seen this star from a dark site. If I can see this particular star from home then Pluto is cooked. Will be a real Hail Mary though. This star is easily visible using my video astronomy rig from home, so last resort would be using this video astronomy set up to identify Pluto in October.
Alex.