It was more interesting for me in that this is the first time I have seen Mercury
Both Mercury and Venus were bubbling colourful blobs although Saturn looked alright.
It was interesting to see the relative brighnesses of these planets being close enough to directly compare.
Me too. first Mercury viewing for me too. At least that I'm aware of anyway Venus' a bright little gem at the moment, should get considerably brighter over the next couple of weeks too.
I stuffed around and it took me to long to figure out how to use new camera in dark (hate preparing for things LOL - so just missed mercury in the clouds (although it is there if i zoom in - I was surprised how good the trio looked looked in twilight!
Well after a less than favourable week, today was clear, and crisp.
Located Venus just after lunch, while it was high and transiting. Got a view of both Venus and Mercury then, but couldn't find Saturn, possibly as I wasn't exactly sure where to look.
Waited until near sunset, and just after shot the trio with the ED80 refractor, and D100 Nikon. While not spectacular, it was neat to have all three in the same FOV/image.
Left my pictorial run a little late (hey my soup was getting cold), but managed a threesome with the 80-200 Nikkor on the D100. Exposure times will be recorded, but not overly relevant here.
Gary
Great to see the Poms get a hiding last night as well, go the All Blacks.
Lucky bugger John. Glad you got clear skies to see it. Its great to see everyone getting into the spirit of the occasion.
There is another opportunity on the 4/7/05 for another conjunction/occulation when Venus and Mercury pass through M44 ,The Beehive cluster. I'd love to see what you guys with Digital non-SLR cameras can do with this one.
If you're not sure how long you can expose for before getting star trails. A rough guide is time = 700/FL of camera lens (you might have to check the manual that came with your camera for this) eg. with a 50mm lens then the approx exposure time is 14 sec, but a 28 mm lens ups the exposure time to 25 sec. Good luck for those you give it a go.
The full formula is t(sec)=1000/(F*cosDec) where dec is the object Declination. Ignore the - sign for southern decs. Important to remember, if you use say a 50 mm lens and image something at 30 deg Dec you will include objects in the field of view with lower Dec angles (close to the celestial equator 0 deg dec). So work out the field of view of your lens, find out the lowest Dec angle included in your image and use its t (sec) for the shot to reduce the likelihood of trails.
Last edited by [1ponders]; 26-06-2005 at 07:52 PM.
Thanks for the photos guys, We tried to catch it ... went to the western side of the Great Divide, drove 450kms away, and didn't see a break in the cloud for tonight's event.
One consolation, we saw Saturn, then Venus & Mercury last night though not at the same time, and from 8.30 - 10.00 pm had some of the clearest skies I'd seen in a long time. ( Lakefield National Park - No Moon )
If I can find it before freezing up again Paul. The OTA ices up really fast (about 5-6 minutes).
Not so bad tonight but last night both my mirrors dewed up so bad that water was running down and dripping from the primary. I'm suprised the Primary didn't ice up too (might have if I stayed out longer).
I will have a search for it. What is the best time to spot it and I will set up about that time?
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
Venus' a bright little gem at the moment, should get considerably brighter over the next couple of weeks too.
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My comment in other thread!
