N1
11-01-2014, 10:36 PM
About tonight's conjunction...
Miraculous break in the weather here in NZ's South Island, which lasted all day. Spent most of that observing & took the odd photo through the eyepiece, handheld throught he old Nag as always. These give a good impression of what could be seen, though seen live the crescent was razor-thin, pics do not quite reflect that. Most were taken around noon, for which Calsky.org gave the following data:
Phase: 0.4%
Separation: 5.15°
Not sure if the horns did project beyound 180° visually, though optimistically I might say they went to 210°.
From observations made in 2012 after the Transit, I know that while 5.1° seems spectuacularly close to the Sun, it is still quite short of "closing the circle". That seemed to really get going between 2 and 3 deg separation. Still, a very nice view.
Scope had to be moved frequently to stay in the shade, so between views of Venus, I thought I might check what's happening on the other side of the Sun, and sure enough, there it was - Mercury to the east and slightly further away than Venus.
Cracker Day
Cheers Mirko
Miraculous break in the weather here in NZ's South Island, which lasted all day. Spent most of that observing & took the odd photo through the eyepiece, handheld throught he old Nag as always. These give a good impression of what could be seen, though seen live the crescent was razor-thin, pics do not quite reflect that. Most were taken around noon, for which Calsky.org gave the following data:
Phase: 0.4%
Separation: 5.15°
Not sure if the horns did project beyound 180° visually, though optimistically I might say they went to 210°.
From observations made in 2012 after the Transit, I know that while 5.1° seems spectuacularly close to the Sun, it is still quite short of "closing the circle". That seemed to really get going between 2 and 3 deg separation. Still, a very nice view.
Scope had to be moved frequently to stay in the shade, so between views of Venus, I thought I might check what's happening on the other side of the Sun, and sure enough, there it was - Mercury to the east and slightly further away than Venus.
Cracker Day
Cheers Mirko