I managed to roll out of bed at 4.30 this morning hoping to catch my first ever Venus. Imagine my delight when I peered through the bedroom blinds to see it shining brightly in the clear Eastern sky! I set up the scope, grabbed a can of energy drink (late night last night) and parked myself on the driveway for a fantastic morning's viewing. Venus was the star of the show (excuse the pun) in crescent form and took my breath away. Shame about the street light which impeded viewing until a little later in the morning but still spectacular nonetheless. Next up I had a go at Mars, which I'd also never seen before. The seeing was not exceptional (owing to the aforementioned street light and position to the horizon) but still made me smile from ear to ear when I got it relatively focused in the eyepiece. It was then back to an old favourite, Jupiter, sitting nice and high in the sky. Only 3 of the Galilean moons were visible to me, and the cloud banding only just visible. By the time I'd marveled over these 3 glorious heavenly bodies our friendly neighbourhood main sequence star was starting to peer over the horizon and the clouds started rolling in. Overall, not a bad morning's viewing - and with an iffy focus tube I should add - but I am looking forward to seeing Mars a little better soon.
Sounds great Wade.... 3 planets is not a bad effort at all .... Uranus is lurking near Mars as well, though may be hard to find with those streetlights!! Well done
Yes, it's worth getting up for, isn't it Wade! If you want to try and track down Uranus, I took an image this morning that might help. It shows the relative position of Venus, Mars and Uranus:
Thanks for that Stephen, will have to have a go at Uranus tomorrow morning (provided I can shake off this ANZAC day cheer ;-))
I must say that I really am enjoying this hobby, it is so rewarding for so little effort. I can't believe I didn't get into this earlier! This forum has made it so much easier.
