Anybody else watching Mercury??

Hi:

For the past few weeks Mercury has been quite viewable, about 15 degrees altitude 25 minutes after sunset. Tonite is will still be something like 14 degrees or so.

I have been starting out the evening viewing Mercury with my ED-80. Some nights the atmosphere is quite turbulent so the phase is not particularly apparent but the night before last it was quite nice, about 35% illuminated and quite sharp at 125x, not so sharp at 250x but the crescent was still very apparent and larger. The Atmospheric dispersion was quite apparent at 250x.

Mercury does not show the sort of detail of Saturn, Mars and Jupiter but it does show is phases and it is quite close to the sun. I enjoy watching it much the same way I enjoy watching Venus, the challenge is being aware of what it is doing and being there for those minutes when it is at its best.

Best to all...

Jon

PS: I post this in the Beginners section a few weeks ago when Mercury's run was just beginning but did seem to raise any interest...

Hi Jon, My normal observing site has the NW view block to about 30 degrees so I packed up the scope and headed out of town. I saw your Mercury thread a couple of weeks ago and viewed Mercury for the first time in my 44 years. This truely is a neglected planted.

Thanks Dave


P.S. I convinced my wife to go out with me and we enjoyed the sunset and views together. She enjoyed the twilight vieiwing but is not an all night diehard like me. ;0)