Venus, Jupiter and Mercury conjunction.

lolie

Surprised no one put this up yet.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/10may_sunsettriangle/

Worth goin outside for a look. After the last week been mostly cloudy it should be visible this week as the next few evenings should be fairly clear.

Knifey Spoony

Looks like tomorrow and Thursday will be the best days to spot this where I am, although there always seems to be a big bank of clouds to the west, just blocking my view of anything interesting. I'll be really annoyed if I don't get to see it this week.

Saturn's very easy to stop these days too, so it's a great chance to see all the inner planets in one night.

Zubeneschamali

Clear skies in Athlone: A perfect view of all 3 just now through my 10x50s, all in the same field of view!

Very cool.

username123

Got to see all 3 through my 8x42s a few minutes ago. I am happy!

M.T. Cranium

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

Saturn's very easy to stop these days too

Maybe for you.

zenno

Will try and get a video recording of it later at sunset, might be a bit low to see from here though.

lolie

Showed a few people who were very impressed by it, most likely never saw mercury before.
There's some impressive looking Noctilucent cloud's out now thats worth heading out fora look at.

Knifey Spoony

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Maybe for you.

Should have been "spot" not "stop". That'll teach me to read my posts in more detail before I post them.

jfSDAS

hi all,

It's been a while since I've been on Boards.ie but do browse the posts almost daily.

Got some nice views too of the planetary trio during the last week from sites as diverse as Ballynultagh Gap (overlooking Poulaphouca, above Lacken in Wicklow), the Sugarloaf car park (also in Wicklow), and out my bedroom window in Terenure. As Knifey-Spoony mentions, Saturn is also a fine sight these evenings.

Eclipse guru Fred Espenak has a nice series of graphics showing the day-by-day changing configuration of the 3 planets in the NW sky. The charts are for his location in Arizona but the aspect isn't much different to what we'll see (or saw) from here -- I'm sure Fred doesn't have to contend as much with the whims of the weather though!

astropixels.com/conjunctions/2013/2013triplecharts.html
www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/192020551.html

John

ThunderCat

Haven't been luckly enough to see the three planets together due to the location of my house, but I do remember last year (maybe October or there abouts) seeing Saturn, Venus and Mecury all in a line just before sunrise. Was very impressive and my first time seeing Saturn and Mercury at the time. I presume many others on here saw the same thing too. They wouldnt have been as tightly packed as Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are now but impressive all the same.
Speaking of Saturn, I had a quick look at it through my 10x50 bins last night but my hands are always shakey so it wasnt perfect. I didnt have my tripod to hand either so i was hoping, clear skies permitting, to see it again over the weekend. Just wondering if the rings can be seen if I mount my 10x50's or if my bins would be too weak to see this? Also would titan or any of it's other moons be visible with my bins mounted?
Thanks.

jfSDAS

hi Thundercat,

I missed the morning conjunction last year but recall reading about it in one of the monthly magazines. Amazing how the angles and distances between the planets involved in these conjunctions change from day-to-day. When the Moon is in the area it enhances an already dramatic scene.

The 10x50mm won't show the rings unfortunately. At about 10x to 15x you'll seen the planet slightly elongated, hinting at something unusual about the shape of Saturn. My old 20x60mm tripod-mounted binoculars did show the rings distinctly separate from Saturn's globe but ONLY when the rings were wide open -- the image was tiny but a gap was visible between the rings and the planet itself. The aspect of the rings will widen even more over the next few years.

You should see Titan though in the 10x50mm when they are mounted on the tripod. The moon shines at roughly magnitude 8 or so. There's a utility on Sky & Telescope's web site to show Saturn's moons -- see http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/3308506.html?page=1&c=y (the monthly magazines will also give the configurations).

I've also used an old DOS/Windows program called SatSat but am not sure where it might be on the web. Maybe to browse through the software archive on Pierpaolo Ricci's web page at http://www.pierpaoloricci.it/download/downloadsoftware_eng.htm

Clear skies!

John

ThunderCat

Thanks for the reply John.

Yea the allignment last year was impressive. They were in a diagnal line or pretty close to it for a few days. Mercury isnt out of the suns glare for long though. Some feeling seeing the three of them in a row all the same. I actually had the bins mounted for that one but it was close to sunrise and was nowhere near fully dark so I thought viewing Saturn this time round in complete darkness might be different. I did notice the elongation even then though so I know what you mean. I read somewhere that Galileo when he first viewed Saturn believed the rings to be two moons either side of the planet.

Anyways, thats enough of the Saturn talk - this is a Jupiter, Venus and Mercury Thread.

youtube!

will this conjunction still be visible over the next few nights or did I miss the boat as I usually do?:o

username123

youtube! wrote: »

will this conjunction still be visible over the next few nights or did I miss the boat as I usually do?:o

Check out the link originally posted by jfSDAS - http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/192020551.html
Theres a nice video of it. Jupiter is getting lower though, it was hard to see it last night so Id imagine theres only one or two more night where you will realistically see it (depends where you are of course).

atkin

jfSDAS wrote: »

hi all,

It's been a while since I've been on Boards.ie but do browse the posts almost daily.

Got some nice views too of the planetary trio during the last week from sites as diverse as Ballynultagh Gap (overlooking Poulaphouca, above Lacken in Wicklow), the Sugarloaf car park (also in Wicklow), and out my bedroom window in Terenure. As Knifey-Spoony mentions, Saturn is also a fine sight these evenings.

Eclipse guru Fred Espenak has a nice series of graphics showing the day-by-day changing configuration of the 3 planets in the NW sky. The charts are for his location in Arizona but the aspect isn't much different to what we'll see (or saw) from here -- I'm sure Fred doesn't have to contend as much with the whims of the weather though!

astropixels.com/conjunctions/2013/2013triplecharts.html
www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/192020551.html

John

He nice video. There is no info about this on net ! I thought I was imagining this when I looked in sky or was it the space station ?
I can still see Venus with the naked eye , 11 June, 12.13 June cloudy .

atkin

atkin wrote: »

He nice video. There is no info about this on net ! I thought I was imagining this when I looked in sky or was it the space station ?
I can still see Venus with the naked eye , 11 June, 12.13 June cloudy .

I can still see a star in the western sky about 5* left of where the sunsets 1/7/13
You post rubbish on these forums and get more interest .

Zubeneschamali

atkin wrote: »

I can still see a star in the western sky about 5* left of where the sunsets 1/7/13
You post rubbish on these forums and get more interest .

I'm not sure what you are asking.

atkin

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I'm not sure what you are asking.

Simple is it Venus or the space station .Astronomy Ireland has no details on this .

Zubeneschamali

atkin wrote: »

Simple is it Venus or the space station .Astronomy Ireland has no details on this .

The space station orbits the earth: it moves visibly across the sky, so it can't be that. Venus is currently in Cancer, so setting shortly after the Sun.

atkin

Mmmm looks like Venus as it is the only star visible before sunset. Then it also sets 30 minutes after the sun.

Zubeneschamali

atkin wrote: »

Mmmm looks like Venus as it is the only star visible before sunset. Then it also sets 30 minutes after the sun.

Sounds right.