Venus - Neptune Conjunction Friday 13th January

Hi telescopic astronomers and lovers of planetary conjunctions. I see that on this coming Friday night (13th), Venus and Neptune are having a nice conjunction -they will only be 1.1 degree apart. I am aiming to see them both in the same field of view with my 6.2" refractor. Venus will be south of Neptune. I shall be observing from 4 to 7pm, and after that both planets will be too low. According to the weather people we will have a clear night. Let's have some observing reports about this. Venus is -4 magnitude and Neptune +8 magnitude.

Yours, Aubrey.

Thanks for the heads-up Aubrey, it is a nice planetary conjunction target alright. Spotted this event earlier and thought to myself whether or not my 300mm lens on the 400D might capture the pair? Anyone know?

Is that the small rocket launcher-sized refractor you had at Cosmos 2 years ago that you're going to use?

Seanie.

Yes Seanie. Indeed it is. The apo has a great field of view -over 2 degrees with a 2 inch eyepiece. I will have no problem fitting the brighest planet and the faintest planet in one go for my first time. This planetary conjunction is the first of many this year.

Aubrey.

Hi Guys, I'm going to try for this also with my flt110, and yes Seanie, the 300mm will get them both - so your focal length will be 480mm with the size of the sensor on the 400D, that should get you about 4 degrees wide?, even so, i'd say you will have to crop the image a little.

here's hoping for clear skies............

Keith.

No luck- clouds

Keith.

Sorry to hear about that, Keith. Myself and Ken Finlay witnessed this conjunction from south Dublin in clear skies. Venus showed a very good gibbous phase (80% lit) at magnifications over 100X. However to view Neptune in the same field of view we had to use 30X to 40X. Neptune was a mere dot, of course. We went home rejoicing having seen our first planetary conjunction of 2012. Did anyone else see it?
Roll on the next one which is slightly more spectacular: Venus-Uranus conjunction on Thursday evening 9th February.

Aubrey.