I was able to observe Mercury on March 19, 2011 (00:00 U.T.) over the western horizon (~23.5*) using my friend’s excellent Meade 8-inch (20-cm) F/10 ACF SCT at 120x. I was impressed with the fact that albedo features were visible over the planet while using an aperture down to 4 inches (10 cm) at a friend’s observatory. The seeing over the western horizon at sunset (twilight) was very erratic but while airing for moments of steady seeing I was rewarded by the features noted below.
Date (U.T.): March 19, 2011
Time (U.T.): 00:00
CM 77.8*W, Ls 128.5*, De -5.3*, Ds 0.1*
-0.7m, p 60%, 6.7″
Instrument: Meade 8-inch (20-cm) F/10 ACF SCT
Magnification: 120x
Filters: None (IL)
Seeing (1-10): 4-6, Antoniadi (I-V): III-IV
A digital image produced in Photoshop CS5.
Carlos E. Hernandez
That is a beautiful sketch. It captures well the evanescent nature of Mercury’s apparent features.
Terrific. Everything I’ve seen so far with my 180mm (7.1″) was a bright golden disc. Congratulations, really great.
Rodrigo,
Thank you for the compliment on my Mercury observation. Mercury is not an easy object to detect detail over. You may want to use a Wratten 23A (light red) filter in order to detect detail over it. The best of luck in your observations.
Carlos
Carlos,
A very impressive capture of Mercury during a favorable elongation.
Frank 🙂
Frank,
Thank you for the compliment on my Mercury observation. It is fun tracking down the messenger of the gods. The best of luck in your own observations.
Carlos