This was the setting of the open house observing night at June 25th 2005 at the Tri Valley Stargazers Hidden Hills Observatory (H2O). The panorama was taken shortly after sunset. (click on the image for a larger version)

A very interesting event was the close approach of Mercury, Venus and Saturn in the west shortly after sunset. The conjunction is not visible in the panorama picture due to scaling.

With a digital camera zoom lens the conjunction showed the close positioning of the three planets.

The objects are from left to right: Saturn - Venus - Mercury and further right Pollux.

The closest approach of Mercury and Venus occurred on Monday 2005-06-27 with only 4arc minutes. This closest approach was best visible from Europe and Sibylle Froehlich of the WFS in Berlin capture this image with a digital camera.

At only 4arc min separation the two planets fit nicely into the view of a high magnification telescope and webcam. The planets show phases which for Venus at the time were 96% and for Mercury 62%. The color artifacts caused by atmospheric dispersion were removed in Registax.

Email : drgert1@yahoo.com

Back to my astronomy home page
Zurueck zur Astronomie Startseite