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Date: 10 Dec 2006 08:57:41
From: W. H. Greer
Subject: Morning of Dec. 10th
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I took a brief peek at Saturn and the moon, near each other high in
the morning sky.
The planetary conjunction of Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars was viewed
with 8x42 binoculars and an 80mm f/5 refractor (using 13x and 22x). It
was better with the binoculars. Mercury was just above Jupiter. Both
were very bright and obvious to the unaided eye. Above Mercury was
Beta Scorpii. Mars was a bit more distant from the above mentioned
trio -- off to one side (often behind the branches of a pine tree) and
significantly dimmer than the other two planets. This grouping was
observed off and on from about 13:30 UT until 14:15 UT. The
temperature was +17 degrees F (-8 degrees C).
The rising sun was glanced at with the 80mm f/5 refractor, equipped
with a full-aperture (Baader) solar filter. A large, very prominent
sunspot stood out like a sore thumb. It seemed to be sandwiched
between two smaller spots positioned near the edge of the main spot's
penumbra. These notes are based on a brief, visual observation at 22x
under poor seeing conditions. The Sun was very low in the sky, having
just risen high enough to view the full disk.
Bill
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Date: 10 Dec 2006 08:50:37
From: oriel36
Subject: Re: Morning of Dec. 10th
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It must be wonderful to come to sci.astro.amateur and speak of Mercury
being above Jupiter about 600 years after Copernicus created an
accurate version of the arrangement of planets in respect to each other
and to the central Sun.
The fly in the ointment with the Ptolemaic and earlier systems was
where to fit Mercury and Venus as the Sun was believed to exist below
Mars.The totally readable Copernicus explains in chapter 10 how he came
to place Mercury closest to the Sun next to the more distantVenus -
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Copernicus.html
Being an unapolgetic sub-geocentrist is fine but I wish that at least a
few would go outside and try to match the reasoning of the great
astronomers,ancient and heliocentric, on planetary positions with
respect to the Earth and to the Sun.It is worth the effort,truly !.
W. H. Greer wrote:
> I took a brief peek at Saturn and the moon, near each other high in
> the morning sky.
>
> The planetary conjunction of Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars was viewed
> with 8x42 binoculars and an 80mm f/5 refractor (using 13x and 22x). It
> was better with the binoculars. Mercury was just above Jupiter. Both
> were very bright and obvious to the unaided eye. Above Mercury was
> Beta Scorpii. Mars was a bit more distant from the above mentioned
> trio -- off to one side (often behind the branches of a pine tree) and
> significantly dimmer than the other two planets. This grouping was
> observed off and on from about 13:30 UT until 14:15 UT. The
> temperature was +17 degrees F (-8 degrees C).
>
> The rising sun was glanced at with the 80mm f/5 refractor, equipped
> with a full-aperture (Baader) solar filter. A large, very prominent
> sunspot stood out like a sore thumb. It seemed to be sandwiched
> between two smaller spots positioned near the edge of the main spot's
> penumbra. These notes are based on a brief, visual observation at 22x
> under poor seeing conditions. The Sun was very low in the sky, having
> just risen high enough to view the full disk.
> Bill
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