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Observing and Imaging Group
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Topic starter
A rotten shame that we had to cut short our viewing session last night on Blackheath, particularly as we had such a good attendance. At one stage, I think we had about 70 people gathered, and I counted around 20 scopes.
Still, most people did manage to see the conjunction, as well as views of Saturn and the Moon, so all was not lost.
I had plans to do quite a bit of imaging last night, as the forecast was suggesting clear skies! So much for the forecast. So, I only managed to take a couple of photos - one of the sunset and the other a wide-angle view of the conjunction... so I thought I'd share them here...
Sunset over Blackheath 30 June 2015 by Mike Meynell, on Flickr
Jupiter Venus Conjunction 30 June 2015 by Mike Meynell, on Flickr
Posted : 01/07/2015 11:04 am
I still cannot believe that as we left the house, Jupiter and Venus were visible. As we parked the car, Jupiter and Venus were visible. As we walked towards the telescopes, Jupiter and Venus were visible. As we got to a telescope, Venus disappeared.
Posted : 01/07/2015 11:09 am
Were you there, Andy? Oh, no I didnt see you!
I managed to get cover for my work to come to the meet up. Once again, I was madly ambitious to first enjoy and share the views of the conjunction through my Nexstar telescope, to show a couple of our members how to setup a computerised alt az and to then take 20mins or so in the later hour to image the conjunction with my 80mm refractor on the equatorial. This meant i hauled both telescopes systems to work in central first. But as I set off to Blackheath, my poor overly abused cricket bag, screamed, "I cannot take it anymore...I aint made for this, I'm done" and in violent protest, spectacularly detached the handle away from its body. I realise I cannot go far on foot with this poor wretched thing and called a cab to Charing Cross then train to Blackheath and then cab again to the meetup.
Carrying the second telescope was pointless in the end of course but it was all still worth it to be there, enjoy the great company of others and wow, it was certainly an exciting experience to see lovely crescent Venus and Jupiter in the same field of view through the eyepiece. Pity as it got darker, the clouds rolled in robbing us of the full potential of the conjunction. Still, that felt very special.</span>
I think my next purchase (apart from a new cricket bag) will be to purchase the dual alt az/equatorial mount and stop with carrying two telescope mounts! AZ-EQ5 looks right for me.
My huge thanks to Bill for offering me a lift at the end. Very very kind of you.
Great to see you all again, I did have Flamsteed withdrawal symptoms but that's been remedied last night. See some of you again on Saturday.
Posted : 01/07/2015 2:23 pm
Venus & Jupiter conjunction Sidcup yesterday evening.
8" SCT with Canon 1100D DSLR.
Posted : 01/07/2015 2:34 pm
I was looking right at you, Tej, and tried to say hello, but you were busy dismantling your 'scope while talking to someone. We didn't hang around for long - just long enough to not see Venus and Jupiter, not see Saturn, and look at the Moon's terminator for about 10 seconds before it hazed over! We were back home an hour after we left 🙁
Posted : 01/07/2015 2:38 pm
Topic starter
...enjoy the great company of others...
It was great to see you there, Tej... we've missed you!
AZ-EQ5 looks right for me
Interesting... I looked at this mount online this morning... looks good. I like the pier/tripod idea. Note that it doesn't have a polarscope, though... you have to buy this separately.
If I was going to buy a new mount at the moment, I'd probably still go for the AZ-EQ6, because of the payload capacity; or maybe the iOptron iEQ45... but the AZ-EQ5 does look interesting and it's also very light.
Posted : 01/07/2015 2:46 pm
Topic starter
Venus & Jupiter conjunction Sidcup yesterday evening.
Nice one John.... you've picked up all of the Galilean moons... and the crescent of Venus is really nice.
Posted : 01/07/2015 2:47 pm
Venus and Jupiter close encounter. I hope this picture will come up at the correct size.
8" SCT with Canon 1100D DSLR
Posted : 02/07/2015 1:18 pm
Topic starter
Sorry you're having trouble with adding photos John. We normally link to photos stored on other websites, as we restrict uploads to the forum to reduce space used on the server and to keep site performance at a reasonable level.
I've added your image to Rupert's report of the event here: http://flamsteed.info/2015/06/blackheath-observing-conjunction-of-venus-and-jupiter/
Posted : 03/07/2015 10:16 am
was great to see every one there
great pics Mike and John 🙂
Posted : 07/07/2015 10:08 am
