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

Great views here also, saw Jupiter in full daylight through binoculars which was a first for me. Only about 30 miles south of you Dave but no trouble with clouds here till after 11, v fortunate as later in the night was completely overcast.

Next year's conjunction will be even closer but also closer to the Sun, won't be visible naked-eye I'd say.

Edit: just saw your post there Aubrey, yep the next one's in morning skies.

A few of us went to our observing site at Killylane. Unfortunately we were mostly clouded out, the longest view we had was for about 10 minutes. I didn't see Jupiter's moons either, although the two main cloud belts were seen. Venus was well seen.

At least I managed to help two newbies get their scopes collimated.

The midges were murder! We don't usually go to Killylane at this time of year, and didn't realise how bad it would be. I ended up chain-smoking to try and keep them at bay!

What smoking while observing? Tut, tut.
No, I am only joking Stevie. Midges are truly terrible, I agree.
By the way, where is Killylane? Is it in Northern Ireland?

Aubrey.

I got a very good view from Larne - most of the sky was clouded out but a hole remained in the crucial area throughout the event. View through my 80ED refractor showed the two planets as very different, Jupiter big and soft with equuatorisl bands and Venus a lovely crescent. The view was turbulent however. I did fine Venus at about 5pm in my 15x70s though no sign of Jupiter at that time.

Well done to you lads up North.

I like your shot with the aeroplane, Paul.

It seems that a huge amount of counties all around the island of Ireland saw the greatest planetary conjunction of all on either Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. Truly spectacular!

Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey

Yes, Killylane reservoir is about 4 miles from Larne. We don't go there as often as we did in the past, mainly because the increasing light pollution from Belfast has ruined the southern view. It's ok for newbies, and if we are only going out for a couple of hours, or we expect a fair crowd.