Tax day comes and may bring stress to reward yourself by trying to catch a threesome of solar system objects at once. Venus continues to rise higher in the sky as Mercury is setting earlier each night and getting dimmer. Mercury is still there, but more difficult to see. Tonight, we get the crescent Moon joining them. The Moon was new at 12:29 UT (5:29am MST) on April 14th. By the time the Sun sets tonight, the Moon will be almost 38 hours old (on the west coast) and I can usually pick it out by that time shortly after Sunset.
Mercury may be more difficult. It is below the crescent Moon so make sure you have a good horizon. After the Sun sets, you can safely use binoculars to scan for Mercury. Here is the obligatory Stellarium screen shot for Tucson.
I have improv rehearsal tomorrow night, but will try to sneak out to get a photo!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
Stellarium is a cool program. I used to have it. I deleted it for some reason... Hmmm, maybe too much music on my hard drive.
ReplyDeleteIf it stays clear, I'll go out and look. It is supposed to be a very nice day. I celebrated with a day off! Yea!
You picked a good one, kk. I'm cooking out with some neighbors. Thank you, hale , for being our star gazer.
ReplyDeleteIt was an awesome day to pick to be off.
ReplyDeleteHale, I did my best to capture a picture of it, but failed miserably, even though the sky was clear. Venus was bold and bright. Just could not see Mercury, even with the binoculars. Must be too much light pollution? The moon was amazing, it almost looked like an eclipse. It was the tiniest sliver around the bottom and up the sides, so bright and spectacular. Thanks for making me look up. Well worth it!
The Galileo does me little good. I can't hold it still enough nor can I seem to find anything through it. Sorry, but it has been a disappointment.
A very awesome display tonight! Saw the crescent moon and Venus! Very bright and clear.
ReplyDeleteYou are right KK, the moon was amazing!
Hey, you can send me your Galileo !
:)
Well, you do need a tripod for the Galileoscope...see if Value Village has one for you.
ReplyDeleteLate in the day clouds moved in and were hovering over the mountains in the west. I could see the Moon and Venus, but Mercury was lost in the clouds...and even the Moon and Venus were obscured. The Moon will be above Venus tomorrow night...I will look again, but will be at the U of A softball game, so I won't be able to try a photo.
Clear night tonight! The Moon and Venus are very bright. Can't pick out Mercury though.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a better camera, looks pretty cool....