skysurfer
21-02-2020, 08:52 PM
With lack of enough clear skies for AP, I did some visual observations here in Oz between clouds in the past few nights with my ED 110mm.
But yesterday (after)noon the sky was so clear blue in Katoomba / Mt Victoria, that around 13:00 (Sun about at its highest point) I set up my scope and looked up Venus (a no-brainer) and then looked a few objects:
* Mercury: FAIL. too close to the Sun and too faint (+1.5) and poor seeing
* Fomalhaut +1.1, not too difficult, I could see the star, almost overhead, only 21º from the Sun.
* Achernar +0.4, very easy, particular when using a polarizer filter which darkens the blue sky background without fainting the star (or planet).
Polarization filters work best when the object is about 90º from the Sun.
But yesterday (after)noon the sky was so clear blue in Katoomba / Mt Victoria, that around 13:00 (Sun about at its highest point) I set up my scope and looked up Venus (a no-brainer) and then looked a few objects:
* Mercury: FAIL. too close to the Sun and too faint (+1.5) and poor seeing
* Fomalhaut +1.1, not too difficult, I could see the star, almost overhead, only 21º from the Sun.
* Achernar +0.4, very easy, particular when using a polarizer filter which darkens the blue sky background without fainting the star (or planet).
Polarization filters work best when the object is about 90º from the Sun.