by Joe Stieber » Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:35 pm
Asterhole wrote:Joe Stieber wrote:I took some pictures of the Crescent Moon and Mercury on the evening of same date...
Oh, I think your photo is rather fine in a bucolic kind of way. I don't believe I have actually ever seen the planet Mercury in Terrestrial skies, being that I live in a rather light-polluted suburb of a major U. S. city.
Thanks, but the main point of linking my picture was to show the relative movement of the moon during the nominal five-hour span between it and the APOD.
Anyway, a suburban location should not be a hindrance to spotting Mercury. I live just 8 miles from center-city Philadelphia, and I spot Mercury on a regular basis, most often not too far from home. I have a few nearby places that I usually go to, but that's so I have a suitably low horizon. Since Mercury is almost always seen during some stage of twilight, and it can be a fairly bright object, urban and suburban light pollution isn't really a factor as it would be if you were looking for dim "deep sky" objects outside of twilight.
This week, I saw Mercury with unaided eyes on Tuesday evening (April 12th) from a major suburban mall parking lot, and last night (April 14th), from a medical center parking lot. Neither of these locations was particular dark, but Mercury was still easy to see in mid-twilight, but you do need to know where to look. Note that both today's APOD and my picture were taken near large cities (Lisbon and Philadelphia respectively).
[quote="Asterhole"][quote="Joe Stieber"]I took some pictures of the Crescent Moon and Mercury on the evening of same date...[/quote]
Oh, I think your photo is rather fine in a bucolic kind of way. I don't believe I have actually ever seen the planet Mercury in Terrestrial skies, being that I live in a rather light-polluted suburb of a major U. S. city.[/quote]
Thanks, but the main point of linking my picture was to show the relative movement of the moon during the nominal five-hour span between it and the APOD.
Anyway, a suburban location should not be a hindrance to spotting Mercury. I live just 8 miles from center-city Philadelphia, and I spot Mercury on a regular basis, most often not too far from home. I have a few nearby places that I usually go to, but that's so I have a suitably low horizon. Since Mercury is almost always seen during some stage of twilight, and it can be a fairly bright object, urban and suburban light pollution isn't really a factor as it would be if you were looking for dim "deep sky" objects outside of twilight.
This week, I saw Mercury with unaided eyes on Tuesday evening (April 12th) from a major suburban mall parking lot, and last night (April 14th), from a medical center parking lot. Neither of these locations was particular dark, but Mercury was still easy to see in mid-twilight, but you do need to know where to look. Note that both today's APOD and my picture were taken near large cities (Lisbon and Philadelphia respectively).