Venus, Mercury & Crescent Moon 9th July 2005

[Dennis]

Hi

Here is a Starry Night Pro screen capture of a close conjunction between Venus, Mercury and the crescent Moon on 9th July 2005, 6:00pm AEST, Brisbane.

The yellow rectangle represents the approximate field of view of a 135mm lens on my Pentax DSLR. All we need now are some clear skies!

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

That will make a lovely site close to the horizon! Thanks for the heads-up Dennis and here's hoping for clear skies!

[Dennis]

As I type this, I am sitting in our study, gazing westwards, longing for the thick, gray, angry clouds to disperse and reveal a slender crescent Moon with Venus and Mercury in attendance, nearby.

Somehow, I don't think I'll get lucky tonight. Good luck to any Ice In Spacer's who manage to get a few shots off. Just post them so I can see what I look likely to miss.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Well, I dragged the mount upstairs and plonked it down by the study window. Aligned on South using a compass offset by 11 deg for magnetic variation, clamped the Pentax istDS on top, plugged in the remote shutter release, unlocked the security screens, sat and waited.

After a few minutes we got a brief clearing and I snapped a couple of 10 second exposures using my 135mm manual focus lens set to f8.

It seems that patience is indeed a virtue!

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

Plus Earthshine!!!! Great shot Dennis. You couldn't have planned it for a better shot :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

I wished I have an equatorial mount! Excellent shot Dennis. All I got was this, with a pentax *istDS, on tripod no drive. it is blowing a gale here at the moment, partially cloudy.

[Dennis]

Hi H0ughy

If it makes you fell any better, here is an example of my light polluted skies and the clouds...

Cheers

Dennis

And please....no quips about this being a better shot than the previous attempt!

[h0ughy]

it is ten times better than my attempt Dennis. Send it into S&T and all the rest of them, even submit it to spaceweather. Hey I might have to see if mick pinner still has his eq6 still for sale :D

[ballaratdragons]

Dennis,

That is a beautiful shot!!!

I tried and got exactly the same result as Houghy. Now I gotta work out how to post it on this fangled new pooter.

I think this should work.

[ballaratdragons]

I stand corrected! Houghys is even heaps better than mine.

Looked better before I posted it in here.

Any way, standing outside looking at it was worth it. It was one of those 'Oooooh! Aaaaah!" moments.

[acropolite]

Nice shots heUwee and Denis (OK... you too Ken); another one for the mags perhaps. Looked out at dusk, beautiful deep blue sky, fringed with red from the sunset, but just a little too early for mercury. Of course as it darkened the clouds came in. :tasdevil:

[fringe_dweller]

Great shots people! I observed it but was driving - constantly nearly swerving/crashing while trying to observe heheh - these events are a traffic hazard! had that constant "what a shot that would make" sensation but no camera - but I was confident and knew the IISer's would get the shot - like the Canadian mounties 'always get their quarry'!
Kearn

[Mick]

Lovely photos guys, I was at our club viewing last night and got to see that fine sight. Tonight I got this from home, bit of a squeeze.

[iceman]

Excellent shots everyone.. saw it on Saturday night while driving to dinner.. was a lovely sight and wish I had my camera with me.

[h0ughy]

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/09jul05/westlake.jpg

excellent image from spaceweather! :2thumbs:

[ving]

ohh ahh!! great stuff guys! :)

[gaa_ian]

We had an observing night up here & the conjunction was certainly a hit !
Alicia Newport our club Photographer took this great shot