FWIS3

Swift wrote:Cool

I did have nice views of la bella Luna and Mr. Jove this morning, but no halos, rings, nor owls.

I like those names. I've been teaching my kids how to spot "Mr. Moon, Lady Venus, Sir Mars, and King Jupiter."

and also about mr mono.....but that's for another thread.

pumpkinpi wrote:

Swift wrote:Cool

I did have nice views of la bella Luna and Mr. Jove this morning, but no halos, rings, nor owls.

I like those names. I've been teaching my kids how to spot "Mr. Moon, Lady Venus, Sir Mars, and King Jupiter."

and also about mr mono.....but that's for another thread.

I think this scene from Moonstruck got me using "La Bella Luna".

Pink Floyd's got nothing on reality...
NASA's new animation of The Other Side of The Moon.

...wow...

As the waning, thinning crescent Moon "moves" slowly east in the mornings, it's getting closer to a gaggle of planets. Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus are all in the predawn sky. I haven't actually glimpsed Mercury this time around. I don't have a good place to view the Eastern horizon from my place. Plus, it's 5:30 am. I'm just stumbling out of the house toward the garage and the truck. I do much better with "dusk" viewing.

Also, to the north, The Big Dipper is standing on end. It's been quiet clear here in the mornings and had some pretty nice, albeit brief, views before starting the daily commute.

Awesome Moon this morning. Just an awesome Moon. It seems that when it's time for someone I love to leave the Earth, a big bright friendly Moon is there to light the way.

Thumper wrote:Awesome Moon this morning. Just an awesome Moon. It seems that when it's time for someone I love to leave the Earth, a big bright friendly Moon is there to light the way.

I have always enjoyed moonlight. It seems peaceful and gentle. And it invites you to share your secrets with it.

You have secrets?

Thumper wrote:You have secrets?

I said "your secrets".

Yeah, only the Moon has any interest in my secrets...

Beautiful toenail moon hanging in the pre dawn glow this morning. It's been so cloudy lately that I haven't been able to see anything. I've got a re-occurring alarm reminding me to look for Mercury at dusk. Probably too late now. It transits the sun on Monday. Gonna try to look for that. If only clear skies...

We just got a new telescope and solar filter at work, and the transit will be our first test!

pumpkinpi wrote:We just got a new telescope and solar filter at work, and the transit will be our first test!

It'll have to be my big binocs with the twin solar filters pointing out of the office window. Doesn't seem like much, but it worked great for the Venus transit. This will obviously be more difficult to see due to the relative sizes. We get partially very clear skies very intermittently, but anytime I need a clear sky at a certain location, nope. I'm afraid to even look at the end of the 5 day forecast.

Good luck to you guys!

I'm taking Monday off. One of the local park systems has an Observatory Park, and they will be doing an all day transit program. They did a nice program for the last one. Fingers crossed for the weather

Swift wrote:Fingers crossed for the weather

Aww, that made me think of something Charlie used to say.
Thanks.

I didn't realize how much I relied on Sky and Telescope's Interactive Star Chart (Which appears to not work on most computers I have access to anymore.) It was very handy for me. You input your exact location and then you can scroll through time and get a full sky and horizon view of most popular observing topics. And with a planet like Mercury, I could scroll through days at a certain time and see on which date it would be the highest in the sky. I went out to look for it last night at dusk. I broke out the binocs in preparation for Monday. But I had no idea if it would even be visible yesterday. It's obviously getting closer and closer to the Sun every day.

Looks like I just wasn't meant to see Mercury transit.

Thumper wrote:Looks like I just wasn't meant to see Mercury transit.

Well.... Dang! That sucks.

Socked in and rain through Friday....
Anybody else get a view?

I got a view for about an hour before clouds rolled in. We just got Sunspotters at work so I brought them out to our courtyard. There weren't many visitors being so early on the first day of finals, but I did supply some science and joy to a few professors and students who wandered by!

https://www.scientificsonline.com/product/sunspotter

We incredibly had an awesome view of the Mercury transit in Amsterdam! Which is good because so far since I've been here I've been clouded out for the Venus transit and for a partial solar eclipse, so we were due for some good weather.

We'd set up some nice equipment on the soccer field so all the students passing by etc could stop for a gander, and had a nice event with it. There was a decently sized sunspot, and a surprising amount of detail with the hydrogen alpha filter, so that was fantastic.

We had a pretty good view. We went to the local "Observatory Park" and they had some scopes set-up. The best views were where they were projecting the views on a screen. There was a fair number of high, thin clouds, but we saw Mercury, and the sunspot Rommie mentions (and an astronomy event triggered a question from my wife "how is Rommie doing?"). I couldn't get a decent photo of it.

I have to say the Mercury transit was a lot less impressive than the Venus transit a couple of years ago.

We also went for a hike in this park and the wildflowers were very nice.

By the time we got back from our hike (around 10:30), the clouds were starting to roll in, and it completely clouded over shortly after that.

Thumper wrote:It'll have to be my big binocs with the twin solar filters pointing out of the office window. Doesn't seem like much, but it worked great for the Venus transit. This will obviously be more difficult to see due to the relative sizes.

Plus, Mercury is twice as far away, in addition to being less than half the radius as Venus

Swift wrote:(and an astronomy event triggered a question from my wife "how is Rommie doing?")

Stressed. Trying to not let it get to me, with various degrees of success and failure.

Tell your wife hi from me!

Rommie wrote:

Swift wrote:(and an astronomy event triggered a question from my wife "how is Rommie doing?")

Stressed. Trying to not let it get to me, with various degrees of success and failure.

Tell your wife hi from me!

I will (tell her hi). I told her you were trying to finish up your dissertation, with the occasional time to stop and smell the tulips.

I hope none of you take this the wrong way but, screw all you people.
Seriously, I'm glad somebody got to see it live. Here's to 2019. Oh, and in keeping with the thread title: Here's to next August for my best shot at a total solar eclipse. I'm going to Kentucky to try.