Mercury July 2011

[David_W (Dave)]

Hi Everyone,
With Mercury well placed in the evening sky right now I was wondering if anyone out there has had a decent view of it so far this month? I saw it last evening, but it was freezing cold, blowing a gale and the seeing was atrocious, so the planet looked like nothing more than a vaguely half-phased boiling blob. I retreated indoors to the heater as quick as I could.

About a year ago I had a superb view in the evening sky, and when it was a thick crescent saw that the terminator was not smooth, but had extensions of darker shading here and there, particularly right at the terminator, which I put down to starting to resolve surface details.

I hope to see something similar this time around, has anyone had any decent views of Mercury for 2011? With all this wind and cloud it isn't easy.

Cheers,
Dave W (Bungendore NSW)

[ngcles]

Hi Dave & All,

A view yes -- I took a peek at it last night, but a good view: No. The seeing has been absolute rubbish the last week (in the southeast of Australia).

It was a tiny squiggly dot I suspected might be gibbous -- that's all I couold see. The trick will be to catch it as high as possible above the horizon to maximise you chances of reasonable seeing. Best of luck!


Best,

Les D