Venus & M45 April

Various weather websites for Dublin are suggesting we are due to have clear skies tonight Saturday 4th April.
So we might observe a continuation of the Venus - Pleiades conjunction.

Clear skies, everybody.

Aubrey.

Good news Aubrey, and Clear Outside is indicating 1% cloud cover from 20:00. ISS to pass over between 8 and 9 also. Here's hoping for the best

Excellent news, John.
I am still of the opinion that Venus has not yet completely cleared M45.
My scope is already set up.

John, I seem to simply look up, and I keep seeing the ISS accidentally quite regularly at the right time.

Clear skies, everyone.

Aubrey.

Hi Darren, yes it was like a 3D view, knowing that the Pleiades was much further away.

I see from the latest satellite that it may be clear until midnight or so for Ireland:

en.sat24.com/en

I use this regular to see what it is going to be like outside, you can switch to Infrared at night, lets hope for a good view tonight !

Keith.

@Aubrey,
Getting set up now, not much chance of a polar alignment in daylight though, so I'm not sure how good tracking will be for photographs. Another worrying thing will be exposure times in a brightish sky. The position of Venus at the moment is shown in the pic below:

I have my Camera at the ready folks, clouds are moving fast though.....

Keith..

Hi Keith 

Very many thanks for that link...That's really useful. 

The sky is superb at the moment setting-up my scope now, and about to have a quick look with my 10 X 50s.

Here's to a great night everyone! 

Darren. 

Just enough clear sky in south Limerick. I agree Paul, there is something aesthetically pleasing about tonight's geometry -



Finbarr.

Result ! Beautiful View even under strong moonlight

Keith..

Wow, that was one of the most beautiful sights in all my years in astronomy. Here's a pic while it was still twilight, I liked the blue skies. Taken at 21:10, ISO200, F4.5, 30sec single frame, 200mm lens on a Canon EOS 7D Mk2, cropped. Tracking with Skywatcher SA.

Venus in M45 Twilight  

Click on the image for more detail.

A shot from a little later 21:24

Venus in M45  

I don't like the diffraction spikes in this one. Stopped down to F8 the spikes are not as clean as the shot above at F4.5. Not much I can do about it though..........

Gosh! It's hard to keep up you all.
Utterly brilliant reports and images from so many of you!!

Keith and Finbarr - glorious images from the pair of you.
Hopefully, Paul Evans, you might catch a little part of the Great Conjunction.

I have just come in from observing Venus and the Pleiades at 11X and 40X.
My William Optics 70 mm F/6 apochromatic refractor gets 11X from a 38 mm 2" eyepiece which gives 6 degrees field of view (fov). Whereas my 28 mm 2" eyepiece gives exactly 2 degrees fov and 40X in the main scope. So 2 scopes on the same conjunction gives stupendous results. I could easily see HR 1183 (Hip 17999) sitting right below Venus which has now reached -4.6. Its distance is 93,617,000 kms from us. 45% illuminated and has an angular diameter 26.7" wide. Getting back to M45, there is that famous set of 8 stars coming down from Alcyone. They looked superb tonight. I tried 112X on Venus. But I soon discovered I had appalling shimmering. So I refused to use higher magnifications.
Still Venus is now definitely less than 50% illuminated. There is a missing "bump" in the middle of her.

But overall, this particular Venus - Pleiades was a most magnificent sight. Roll on the next 8 years for the next one!!

Clear skies, everyone.

Aubrey.

Wow some breathtaking shots there guys, many thanks. Just glad I got to see anything at all, been solid cloud again for the last 90 mins or more. Don't forget Jupiter 6 arcmins from Saturn 261 days from now Aubrey!

Finbarr.

Goodness me what a night. It was really something else. And it is wonderful that so many of you photographed it; your images are stunning!

Also, I loved reading your detailed report Aubrey. It must have been such a beautiful view through your eyepiece(s) with the wide FOV  combined with the optics that are in your scope. 

I purposely left the pencil and paper behind me tonight because I wanted my eye firmly fixed on the eyepiece. Instead, I brought out the dicta phone and kept an audio record. I set up my Dob, and the view through the 32mm eyepiece was very nice, but the 10 X 50s mounted on a tripod provided the best view... even my wife thought Venus and the Pleiades looked impressive through them. 

One of the things I'll remember from tonight was the plane. Did anyone notice it fly past Venus and M45 at 22:24? What a sight!

To finish the night I spent the past hour and 20 minutes observing the Moon, and managed to do some afocal astrophotography with my Mobile phone and a neat little eyepiece clamp. 

Brilliant stuff all round tonight, very well done gents. 

Over and out!

Darren. 

Yes, Darren. I did see that aeroplane.
But it was to the east of Venus and the Pleiades by quite a distance.

I also observed the Moon last night.
And I will report my findings later on.

Clear skies,

Aubrey.

The Goddess says goodbye to the Sisters... First one is stolen from the interweb -



Finbarr.