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[Centaur]

The elusive little planet Mercury has begun its apparition as a morning star following its inferior conjunction between Earth and Sun on 2010 DEC 19. The morning celestial geometry is somewhat favorable at this time of year for observers in either the northern or southern hemisphere

I’ve created diagrams illustrating Mercury’s entire current morning apparition as observed from Chicagoland and Sydney. However, they should well serve most observers in the respective hemispheres. They can be seen by clicking: www.curtrenz.com/astronomical then going to the page for the Inferior Planets. (Please note than my website will soon be redesigned and you may have to go to a new Mercury page instead.)

All dates given here are based on CST (UT-6). Mercury will attain its greatest altitude at 30 minutes before sunrise from Chicagoland on 2011 JAN 04 at 10.7°. On that same date it will achieve dichotomy (50% illuminated like a Half Moon). Before that date it will be a crescent and afterward gibbous. It will reach its greatest western elongation of 23.3° from the Sun on JAN 09. While increasing in brightness, it will then fall to superior conjunction behind the Sun on FEB 25.

The Moon will pass about 5° south of Mercury on JAN 02 and 3° north on FEB 01. During this apparition there will be no conjunctions by Mercury near first magnitude stars or planets.

Photos and descriptions of Mercury’s morning apparition would be welcome additions to this thread.

[patrickm]

I will catch you, Speedy Gonzales! You will not escape me much longer. Haha!

[Paulie pchris00]

Last night we had some lake effect snow, not as much as anticipated, but the threat kept me home, and killed any thought of evening telescope time on my night off. However, I went out at 4:30 AM this morning to shovel the driveway. It was less than two inches, but needed to be cleared. It was still cloudy, but of course I was keeping watch for any sign of clearing. By 5 AM, sucker holes were opening up, so I cleared the back patio when I finished in front. After warming up my fingers and toes, I decided to try to catch our three morning planets.

At 5:56 I brought out both telescopes, but didn’t want to waste precious minutes before daylight orienting my go-to scope, so I only used the Dobsonian. The sky was clouding up again, but then mostly cleared right away. Saturn had the first window through the clouds, but it was brief, so I turned to Venus, which was just casting off the last of it’s cloud cover. The illuminated side of the planet has been growing, and last week’s fat crescent has become a half-disk. Just as I was observing the half-Venus, I remembered that it was at Greatest Western Elongation yesterday, and Mercury was at Greatest Western Elongation today. Both planets should appear as half disks.




Venus, still shining brightly.




My best Venus picture of the session. It is so bright that it overwhelms my camera, and conditions for photography were bad.


Mercury was just above a distant tree, so I checked to see if I was right. With bad seeing conditions, I didn’t get great looks at Mercury, but at best, it did appear as a half disk. As it climbed higher, it darted between and behind the last remaining clouds to the east, and observations were limited.




Mercury.




A cloud then covered Mercury...



... but it came back for a few minutes.


With a little luck, this morning I caught the inner planets, Venus only 20 hours past GWE, and Mercury four hours before GWE. I doubt they reach the same greatest elongations with a day of each other often, so I enjoyed seeing our fellow rocky planets both at a half phase.


I don't know what is wrong with photobucket right now, but my pictures should be showing up. If they are not, try reading my blog story.

pchris00pnc.blogspot.com/2011/01/greatest-western-elongations-of-inner.html

[hillimolly]

Paulie, You did a great story .

[hillimolly]

Paulie, I took a picture of the moon again last night and i am going to send it to your gmail

[patrickm]

D00D! You got a pic of Mercury!!! Awesome! Other pics also very nice, but most jealous of Hermes!

We are under clouds here in Austin and will be for a while. :-( Feels like I'll never catch the elusive little guy. Excited to see Saturn again soon though, if clear skies ever return.

Nice work and great report.
p

[patrickm]

Also, it is really cute/cool you guys are both doing astronomy together but separately sometimes...if that makes any sense.