Venus & M45 April

Gosh! It's hard to keep up you all.
Utterly brilliant reports and images from so many of you!!

Keith and Finbarr - glorious images from the pair of you.
Hopefully, Paul Evans, you might catch a little part of the Great Conjunction.

I have just come in from observing Venus and the Pleiades at 11X and 40X.
My William Optics 70 mm F/6 apochromatic refractor gets 11X from a 38 mm 2" eyepiece which gives 6 degrees field of view (fov). Whereas my 28 mm 2" eyepiece gives exactly 2 degrees fov and 40X in the main scope. So 2 scopes on the same conjunction gives stupendous results. I could easily see HR 1183 (Hip 17999) sitting right below Venus which has now reached -4.6. Its distance is 93,617,000 kms from us. 45% illuminated and has an angular diameter 26.7" wide. Getting back to M45, there is that famous set of 8 stars coming down from Alcyone. They looked superb tonight. I tried 112X on Venus. But I soon discovered I had appalling shimmering. So I refused to use higher magnifications.
Still Venus is now definitely less than 50% illuminated. There is a missing "bump" in the middle of her.

But overall, this particular Venus - Pleiades was a most magnificent sight. Roll on the next 8 years for the next one!!

Clear skies, everyone.

Aubrey.

Much to own surprise it cleared a bit.......

spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=160855

Paul

Wow some breathtaking shots there guys, many thanks. Just glad I got to see anything at all, been solid cloud again for the last 90 mins or more. Don't forget Jupiter 6 arcmins from Saturn 261 days from now Aubrey!

Finbarr.

I got this from the back garden in Dublin.

LIGHT_7s_100iso_+20c_20200404-22h14m16s954ms by Michael Murphy , on Flickr

Goodness me what a night. It was really something else. And it is wonderful that so many of you photographed it; your images are stunning!

Also, I loved reading your detailed report Aubrey. It must have been such a beautiful view through your eyepiece(s) with the wide FOV  combined with the optics that are in your scope. 

I purposely left the pencil and paper behind me tonight because I wanted my eye firmly fixed on the eyepiece. Instead, I brought out the dicta phone and kept an audio record. I set up my Dob, and the view through the 32mm eyepiece was very nice, but the 10 X 50s mounted on a tripod provided the best view... even my wife thought Venus and the Pleiades looked impressive through them. 

One of the things I'll remember from tonight was the plane. Did anyone notice it fly past Venus and M45 at 22:24? What a sight!

To finish the night I spent the past hour and 20 minutes observing the Moon, and managed to do some afocal astrophotography with my Mobile phone and a neat little eyepiece clamp. 

Brilliant stuff all round tonight, very well done gents. 

Over and out!

Darren. 

Yes, Darren. I did see that aeroplane.
But it was to the east of Venus and the Pleiades by quite a distance.

I also observed the Moon last night.
And I will report my findings later on.

Clear skies,

Aubrey.