Planets on show
The weather almost thwarted my plans to see the triple planetary conjunction this week. Thursday was clear until the evening when some cloud decided to sit on the western horizon blocking the view. Friday was worse as it rained all day. I woke on Saturday morning to a cloud covered sky. The cloud hung around all day but in the late evening, thankfully, it started to clear. Not having a low western horizon nearby Megan and I rushed to the Physics building to get a better view. We found a vantage point on the top floor looking out across Manchester towards Salford Keys. I managed to take a few pictures with my camera, one of which is below.
You can easily see Venus and, if you click on the image for the larger version, you should be able to see Mercury to the right of it as well. It was the first time that I've ever seen Mercury so it was quite exciting. You may be able to convince yourself that you can also see Saturn if you squint a bit, but it isn't obvious (it helps if you know where to expect it relative to Venus and Mercury). I think the sky was just a bit too bright and the murk a bit too thick to see the fantastic ringed planet. That wasn't the end of the show though, as Jupiter could also be seen below Arcturus in the WSW.
Mercury, Venus, Saturn (maybe), Jupiter and a shooting star (passing below Arcturus) all within the space of an hour. What a great night. If you haven't seen the conjunction yet, don't panic, there is still chance. Although the planets are now starting to move away from one another, they will be fairly close for a few more nights yet.
Comments: Planets on show
Nice picture. Looks like you had as good luck with the weather as I did. I've posted my oictures and weather story at http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2005/06/venus-mercury-and-saturn-and-night.html
with a link to your picture. Haven't worked out how to do trackbacks in Blogger yet.
Cheers! Ian
Posted by Ian Musgrave on Sunday 26th Jun 2005 (13:04 UTC)
Ian, your picture is really great as you can see all three planets. How did you get such good contrast? I am a bit jealous.
Posted by Stuart on Sunday 26th Jun 2005 (14:04 UTC)
Very nice! Been too hazy here for anything.
Posted by Tom on Monday 27th Jun 2005 (01:36 UTC)
G'Day Stuart
I have a Olympus mju: 300. I point, I click, I download and crop in Paint Shop Pro 4.0 (yes, 4.0) I stick in blog spots picture archive, which makes it look darker than it really is. I have no control over the contrast at all. (Actually, I set up night picture mode, turn the flash off and use the self timer mode to prevent camera shake, and I have the camera on a tripod. Tripod and selftimer mode make a heap of difference to the quality).
Also, at my latitude in the Southern hemisphere the planets are much higher above the hrizon at an equivalent time after sunset than in the UK, there is a lot less murk in the way (when it isn't raining, that is).
Although if you are pointing at planets peeking out between clouds in a dark sky, contrast is not much of a problem.
Have a dekko at todays images over at Astroblog
blogger has over-darkened them, but they aren't too bad.
Posted by Ian Musgrave on Monday 27th Jun 2005 (12:59 UTC)
Curses to my latitude!
It was only about a week ago that I thought of using the self-timer facility; sometimes I can ignore the blatantly obvious. Before then I had been blocking the aperture with my hand for a second or so - on a longer exposure - to reduce the camera shake.
Posted by Stuart on Monday 27th Jun 2005 (18:31 UTC)