We had some better than average seeing here in Adelaide on Thursday night, and I was able to capture Mercury in IR and Venus in IR, V, and UV.
Mercury was about a week past greatest elongation, and was just starting to show a crescent phase. South is at the top. There is some surface detail apparent. The bright area near the northern limb corresponds to the crater Cunningham, and the spot near the terminator close to the equator corresponds to the bright crater group Eastman and Xiao Zhao.
This will probably be my last Mercury for what has been a particularly fruitful elongation.
For Venus, this was one of those rare occasions when the seeing allowed for focus in the IR well enough to get some subtle shading. There was some dark patterning in UV as well, and I took advantage to create a IR+V+UV false colour image. Again, south is at the top.
The cloud patterns are unusual -- I have not seen this sort of mottling before, however the brightening at the north pole has been a common feature this apparition.
This is my 14th image of Venus this apparition, and still a week and a bit before maximum elongation.
-Ivan
