Venus-Jupiter Conjunction of June 30th/July 1st

How did everyone fare on seeing these 2?

Spotted the pair first by naked eye, though difficult, at 20:37hrs, then with the 10 X 50 binos. THEN it was time to haul out the 12" Dob. Using the 26mm 2" eyepiece, that pair were nested nicely either side of the field of view (less than .4 of a degree). Venus was a sharp, quarter phase crescent, while Jupiter, though smaller, was also quite prominent despite the fact the Sun was still above horizon. 2 cloud belts were visible, but no Galilean moons were visible.

Couldn't use the camera at prime focus as the focuser on the SkyWatcher Dob protrudes the camera fucos to far out.

Lucky to spot this, as the clouds rolled in not long after.

Seanie.

I got a nice naked-eye view, but it was behind the trees from the observatory.

Cheers,
Jeff.

How did everyone fare on seeing these 2?

Hi all,

I was driving back from Kilkenny and stopped a few times to look with the 10x50mm binoculars at the pairing. A lovely sight each time and more dramatic to the unaided eye as twilight deepened. I got home to Dublin after 11:15pm but the duo had disappeared behind the houses by then. Great to have had clear skies for the spectacle. Completely overcast in Dublin today.

Hope everyone had a good view of the two planets.

John

A number of IAS members met in Sandymount and we viewed both from 9.30 to 10.30.

It was clear for most of the time with just a scattering of cloud disturbing the view for a few minutes at a time.

Michael.

Yea, we got some fab views from 4.30 onwards through the observatory here,we could clearly see Venus in broad daylight when I knew where to look, I was able to get the 2 planets in the same fov easily. the belts were visible but no moons. the clouds came in around 7.30 and looking at the sat images, I could see that we were not going to see any more from Limerick, so off we took in the car and headed up the m7, it was well worth it as we got great views just before 11
Cloud has wiped us out this evening , so Im glad I made the effort to see this yesterday.

Hello, all. Valerie and I enjoyed the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on Tuesday night. My 158mm apo was very busy all evening with many passers-by stopping to have a look. They asked all sorts of questions -such as, how far are the 2 planets from us? So here were the facts I gave them:
Venus distance: 48 million miles.
Jupiter distance: 564,700,000 miles.
Venus illumination: 34% (crescent)
Venus diameter: 32 arc seconds.
Jupiter diameter: 32.5 seconds.

That last comparison will be a surprise to some. Venus's magnitude was -4.4, and even though Jupiter was significantly fainter at -1.8, both planets were almost identical in visual size in any telescope. The separation was 25 arc minutes -less than half a degree.

I observed both with a 28 mm 2" eyepiece which gave 40X. I could just about see 2 moons at the end. But I will not call a judgement as to which ones they were. The North Equatorial Belt and the South Equatorial Belt were both visible at this power.
Some people also love to hype up as to how often these conjunctions happen between Venus and Jupiter.
Well there was a good one last year in the morning. Very few saw it, one of our group from last night succeeded in observing it.
And the next one happens on Monday morning 26th October 2015, when Mars is also in the group. So that is less than 4 months away. Not so rare after all !!

Aubrey.