Just come inside from a fresh, breezy Melbourne after the cool change has cleared, having picked out Mercury low on the western horizon (now naked-eye in the twilight, below Spica). That means that in the past two weeks I've been able to clap eyes on every planet, including Pluto (ok ok, I know), and a few moons too! I don't suppose it's the most common thing to be able to do - see the lot, but there are pretty excellent Solar System tours doable just now:
Mercury - low in the dusk.
Venus - well up at dawn.
Earth - look down
. Look up for the
Moon!
Mars - tiny, moderately high at dusk.
Jupiter, rises after midnight, Galilean moons (
Io,
Europa,
Ganymede,
Callisto) always a treat.
Saturn, getting low in the dusk, between Mercury and Mars. At the ASV's Galactic Centre Star Party, you could pick out five moons:
Titan,
Rhea,
Tethys,
Dione and
Iapetus.
Uranus - high after dark, making a nice pair with a similarly bright star.
Neptune - also high after dusk, saw
Triton easily with the ASV's 25" scope.
Pluto - quite high after dusk, near M25 - found it with the help of a detailed finder chart and a very friendly couple and their 18" scope at the GCSP, one of a myriad of tiny 14th mag specks. DSS charts and AAVSO charts were very useful to check.
So planetary
bingo! for September
. My only very small regret is that I didn't get a chance to have a go at Uranus' moons.
If you have access to a large scope, then it's probably possible over the next fortnight too. If you haven't had a go at seeing all the planets in short order, now's your chance - and all the official planets (sorry Pluto) can be seen with no more than binoculars. Fun to see the differences! Anybody ever managed to go even further with Solar System Bingo? - I guess you could add bright asteroids to the mix too?
I can't remember the names of the friendly couple who I met in the dark, and who gave me some time with their beautiful scope at the ASV star party, but if they are on here: thankyou so much, you really made my night by letting me find Pluto for only the second time in my life!
