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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Crescent Moon, Venus, Mercury, Saturn & Mars observation session
16 April 2010

It's been a bright and sunny day...which will lead to a great sunset with an equally great looking crescent....

To make the evening better will be bright Venus, shy Mercury, the beautiful Saturn and the mediocre Mars.

Sunset is at 7:30 pm and The Chicago Astronomers will set up by the Adler Planetarium at Chicago Astronomer observing site #1...

I'll bring out the C11 Beast and if in the area...stop by and share the views of the cosmos.

Session narrative shortly.....

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Crescent Moon Session -

It was a near cloudless sky by the time I arrived at Chicago Astronomer Observation site #1 - and fellow Astronomers Bill & Steve were already there and set up.

But, the evening was too windy and rather cold for a decent session and we spent just about an hour in the cold...but I took some pics before hand.

Stellarium showed not only the Crescent Moon and Venus at conjunction at sundown, but Mercury still visible...

It was doubted by the others that it was still observable, (not that I saw it first hand), but I assured them it was...and the search was on. Using my 15x70's binos...I spotted it low - about 15 degrees and just above the tree line by the Adler's parking lot - managing to capture the trio...

The skies were a great turquoise blue and my favorite time of day. I set up the smaller C5 SCT and enjoyed the eveniing ahead of us...

...and the following is just the progression of dusk into night and thrown together....





A great Earthshine was observed and a very sharp termnator displayed...

Taken through the C5's 63.5mm finderscope, the beauty of the thin crescent Moon shows...




But, the evening proved too uncooperative and the gusts were messing up any decent astro shots, so we packed up our gear and had soup with the mandatory cheap laughs.

We may do another session in the next couple of nights, but we'll see.