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Venus at 0.4%
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
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