Lunar occultation of Venus

A couple of images:

www.astroshot.com/Deep%20Sky/2008-21-01-Venus-Moon-01.jpg

www.astroshot.com/Deep%20Sky/2008-21-01-Venus-Moon-02.jpg

Michael

The first one is excellent you even manage to capture some of Jupiter's moons

Hi,

Just a quick note, will report more later. Imaged with 60mm refractor.

See:

www.irishastrosoc.org

John

My fingers have just abouyt tawed oot enough to trype again - man that was a coooold afternoon!

Went down to Greystones to watch the occultation with Dee, Michael Murphy, Aubrey Glazier and Keith - Venus disappeared behind the dark limb of the 13.73% illuminated moon at 3.34, taking about 30 seconds to vanish. Then an hour and a half of thumb twiddling, core temperature plummeting and entropy in general later... it popped out the other side - and what a spectacular view it made!! A brilliant diamond on a platinum band. Venus was much brighter than the illuminated crescent of the moon and really exploded into view!

Although we were only doing visual observing (Dee was sketching!), I rattled off a handful of shots with a compact digital camera held up to the eyepiece of the telescope - the results were a bit shaky, but a nice capture of the view close up. A little later, as the sky grew darker, you could see the dark side of the moon illuminated by Earthshine - just beautiful!

picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y78421IDgSp8EaLmXxuXsA


Thanks to all the guys and girls for the company!

Phil.
(still coold... so very, very cooold!)

Well Mike.
I got to the cliffs of Moher and all I wanted was
a boat!
Darn clouds were hanging right over us.
Dave reckons its a constant cloud formation as the air
coming in off the ocean warms up over land.
I have to admit I think he's right.
Everytime we hit the coast there is always a bank of cloud there.

Anyway!
What an event.
Any Idea when the next one is!

I enjoyed the event with Philip, Dee, Aubrey and Michael down in Greystones.

This was a first for me and I'm not just talking about the occultation. This is the first time I got out of bed to go stargazing instead of stargazing and then going to bed!!:blush: With the house move I have not been on the forums a lot for the last month or two and only found out about this event on Sunday. My scope was in bits with a half done mod or two with the mirror out and covered in dust. So I pulled an allnighter on Sunday night to fix and clean the scope in preparation for Monday. I got to bed at 6 am on Monday morning. I woke up at 12:30 PM but damn that infernal Snooze button. I re-awoke and booted up the computer to check Michael Murphys SDAS Venus thread. "Meeting at Lidl Carpark at 2:30pm. I looked at my watch.....

.......1:55pm !!!!! : blink: : blink: :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

I have never got dressed, cleaned up and scope loaded so quickly in my life, and certainly have never been observing within an hour of getting out of bed!! :laugh:

The company as usual was great.

As for the event itself, I will echo Michael O'Connells thoughts. The ingres was 'interesting' as venus slowly dimmed and slimmed down to a sliver before disappearing altogether. This alone would have made the effort worth while. It was very very interesting. This was my first occultation of anything but I can't say that I was jumping up and down clapping my hands or anything.

However the egress......

Spectacular!!

The moon was much brighter with the darker sky making for much improved contrast and when Venus burst into view with a diamond like brilliance that far outshone the surface of the lunar crescent....Thats when I got excited!! Wow!!

This really was an event that had something for everyone whether one was vieing with a scope, Bins or the naked eye. Spectacular close up view in the scope. Beautiful view in the bins with the darkside of the moon lit by earthshine with a diamond like venus near the crescent limb and etheral glowing haze. Naked eye was amazing too, with a beautiful scene of what looked like an explosion on the moon and then jupiter so close by.

Well worth the all nighter efforts the night before and the rush that afternoon.