[AZ-Observing] Mercury & Venus, with a Sprinkling of Saturn

OK, From the "Nothing is as easy as it looks" file. I went out last Friday &
Tonight to snap off some pictures of the conjunction. Of course my neighbors
house block the view entirely from the backyard, so it's out front I go. Set
up the EQ-1 mount and camera. And just as I'm done aligning, the street
light in front of my neighbors house comes on. Right next the subject at
hand. DOH! OK, All my neighbors are used to me doing strange things. At
Night. In front of their houses. So I pick up the mount and lug it across
the street and plunk it down in front of my across the street neighbors
house. Ah, much better. Enjoyed the view  both night through the 15x70's and
the 1x6's> Friday I shot a variety of exposures of 1 to two minutes at
varying aperture & focal Lengths. Though I had more film in the camera or
I'd of quit a bit sooner. As it was I had 2 exposures left for tonight, so I
had to pick my chance. Though it might be a bit dicey as there were a few
low lying clouds in the general direction. Turned out to be not a problem as
they  stayed below M&V and Saturn showed nicely just below them.
 

Now out of about 10 shots, we'll see how many come out. Gotta say, the mount
seemed to track well for a quick alignment using my Compass and not much
else. Hopefully it tracked as good As I think. We'll find out at the next
meeting as I should have the film (remember that stuff?) developed by then.

 

I ended the night giving my neighbors a quick tour of the sky. Dawn wanted
to know how to find the little dipper. Easy enough. She chose to think of
Bootes as an ice cream cone, Said food is easier to remember for her :-).

 

Anyway hope you all got as good a look as I did. 

 

Clear Skies

Rick Tejera

Editor SACnews

Saguaro Astronomy Club

Phoenix, Arizona

saguaroastro@xxxxxxx

www.saguaroastro.org

 



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