Planet Mercury - May 3rd

[martinastro]

This evening I decided to make my first attempt at tracking down elusive planet Mercury. Before sunset I walked a few miles out to the country and found a good location. I watched the Sun set behind the dark outline of the Sperrin Mountains. After a long sweep with the 10x50s I found Mercury at 21.55 BST as a gorgeous golden ball. 15 min's later it was visible on the camera's LCD screen then with the naked eye. It was only 10 degrees above the mountains. As it set the planet turned slightly red. I was lucky because it was soon overcast. The trans was poor due to high level cloud. Images taken at ISO100 2.5 sec exp at F/3.2 using 300mm.

[brianb]

Well done, not easy is it?

I reported the following to Terry Moseley on April 30th ...

" Tuesday April 29th I saw Mercury's phase for the very first time: set
up my 8" LX90 in the back yard, aligned it (obviously it was getting
reasonably dark by then) and thought for the hell of it to try "goto Mercury"
which I hadn't thought of observing. To my surprise Mercury was clearly
visible in the finder, through a fence and some twigs of hedge, and also to
the naked eye once I knew where to look. In the main scope the image was
horrendously distorted by poor seeing but I was able to make out the gibbous
phase without too much trouble at x77. Mercury slipped below my local horizon
a couple of minutes later but would have been visible for quite a while to
anyone with a flat horizon view.

I've seen Mercury before quite a few times with binoculars and several times
with the naked eye, but never through a scope, until this time."

Haven't been lucky with the weather since. About an hour and a half of poor sky last night but far too much medium/high cloud (warm sector altocumulus lenticularis, probably wave clouds from the Sperrins) around the NW horizon to be able to find Mercury.

The big photo opportunity is with the nail paring Moon on Tuesday evening; a quick look at the long range forecast gives hope....

[martinastro]

Thanks Brian.

That's a good early obsv you made. It's always nice to see the phase of Mercury through a scope. The phase should turn into a crescent later this month. I found Mercury to be very easy to see although I did have a good location. Sweeping with the binos first did help in this process before naked eye detection.

I seen those lenticular clouds also Brian, there was a few good ones in the NW and N which turned red. They where over the Sperrins as seen from my location.

[martinastro]

I managed to catch planet Mercury again this evening at 22.18 BST low in the NW. Due to the planet's low elevation I had to set up the camera on the side of a road to get an image. The planet was very easy with the naked eye with bright Capella far above in a wonderful dark blue twilight sky. ISO200 2 sec exp at F/2.9 using 300mm lens.

[brianb]

I managed to get a good observation yesterday (May 4th) too - started really early & managed to locate Mercury at 2045 UTC in 8x50 finder. The image in the 8" LX90 was poor, very blurred due to poor seeing and less than brilliant optics. Set up my 8cm spotting scope and got a really good view, with less aperture the seeing improves and I was able to get an almost crisp image at x148 - looked more like half phase than distinctly gibbous - lots of false colour, not a problem with the scope but differential refraction, the atmosphere acting as a prism & making the "top" of the planet look red and the "bottom" blue! Was tempted to try webcamming but my laptop PC decided not to play ball Maybe tonight?

Mercury was visible from my site until just after 2130 UTC - the azimuth coinciding with the low point in my NW horizon - with the false colour increasing. Switched to Saturn & got a really good view, no sign of the white spots, don't know whether the scope is inadequate or whether they just weren't in view at the time. Also got a look at Mars, phase very obvious with just a hint of surface markings despite the small angular size. Seeing deteriorated rapidly as the sky darkened; actually rather good when the sky was just about dark enough to see Saturn with naked eye but horrendous high-speed "jet stream" type smearing developed as twilight faded.

Actually I saw all the planets known to the ancients except Venus last night; sneaked a quick peek at Jupiter before turning is as dawn was staring to brighten the sky.

[martinastro]

Great report Brian. Did you notice any NLC activity before dawn last night, between 03.45-04.15 BST? at a height of 10 degrees?

[brianb]

No - but then I didn't look, unless I go out of the front of the house (street lights ) my NE horizon is the house roof at an altitude of ~40 degrees.

[martinastro]

This high pressure has been doing wonders for astronomical observation. This evening (May 5/6th) I seen Mercury for the third night in a row. Spotted easily with the naked eye at 21.50 BST then followed it until it set. I got this image looking through tree branches using a 300mm lens at ISO200 1.3 sec exp at F/2.9. Hope it stays clear for the 6th. Another NLC display was spotted on the 5th.

Clear skies

[brianb]

This high pressure has been doing wonders for astronomical observation. This evening (May 5/6th) I seen Mercury for the third night in a row. Spotted easily with the naked eye at 21.50 BST then followed it until it set.

Ha, got it at 21:35 BST (21:30 in binoculars), visible for well over an hour!

Webcamming - sort of worked but the seeing to the NW was horrible, a pulsating blob jumping around the frame - not been through Registax yet. Funnily enough the seeing around Saturn was good, so much so that I was actually able to focus on Cassini's Division! Looking forward to working on that one!

In any given apparition, my experience with Mercury is that it is much easier if you view from the same site as you get a feel for where it should be in relation to the horizon landmarks & alt/az don't vary much from day to day.

[martinastro]

Let's hope it stays clear for tonight to catch the Moon beside it.

[brianb]

Got it, though with some difficulty owing to haze/high cloud. Haze meant waiting till later to get good visibility, by then interference from trees was causing problems - had to rack the tripod up to max height & find a step ladder to operate the camera!!! - anyway here it is, 2135 UTC May 6th 2008: Canon 5D, 400mm, ISO 400, 1 sec at f/4

[martinastro]

That's a very nice image Brian - great capture!

I have been blessed with clear skies for the fourth night in a row. I observed the crescent Moon and Mercury conjunction from 21.30 BST until Pre moonset. I walked a few miles to a good country location and took a few images of the pair over the Sperrin Mountains. Both images taken with 300mm lens.





Also, I have made a short video of the pair which you can see on this youtube link. I have a bigger file available.

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oj85k26zJLU

Clear skies

[brianb]

Here's the result of the webcamming I did on May 5th.

Clockwise from top left: Mercury (corrected for atmospheric dispersion), Mercury (uncorrected), Saturn, Mars.



These are all to scale, done with 80mm spotting scope, focal length extended to approx. 2.3 metres with Barlow projection. Not too bad for the aperture, even a hint of detail on tiny Mars, but Saturn didn't work as well as I'd hoped ... lack of light I think, pronbably would have been better with a longer exposure despite the risk of extra blurring.

Note that Mercury's phase appears smaller in the uncorrected image ... visually the phase appeared to be about half!

[brianb]

May 14th, 2130 BST - Just seen Mercury again - picked up easily in 8x50 finder, visible with naked eye, with difficulty, though fainter than a week ago and hazier atmosphere. Phase clearly a thick crescent in 8" LX90 x77 though nothing else visible (except prismatic effect!)

A star a few minutes of arc following Mercury visible in main scope, identified as 98 Tauri (mag. 5.78)

[toothdr]

This is a great thread to read. I've never observed Mercury but it does seem rather beautiful in all the fantastic pictures above. Is it too late to observe Mercury now?