Venus, Saturn and Handful of Frost

Hello!
Last night I and my Friends we have a great observation night in Oderne, in south Poland – beautiful place among Beskid mountains. We have very good, clear sky but there was very chill. We have very low temperature at night. About -20°C (about -4°F). In central Europe during the Winter, it is nothing strange. But it is necessary to be a tough to make all night observations in this conditions 😉
After many hours of the good observations we take a little nap. We have resumed our observations at 4 AM to get the first Venus and Saturn since few months.
There was intense, severe frost.

Object: Planets Venus and Saturn
Scope: SCT 5″ with SW UWA58 9mm
Time and date: December 5th, 2010. About 4:00 AM
Place: Oderne, Poland
Weather: Clear, dark sky. Heavy frost.
Technique: Graphite pencil
Tooling: Some correction with PhotoShop
Observer: Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

I have a interesting foto from that observations.
There was really heavy frost. After all my equipment was operating quite good 🙂 There was strange noise from motors of my Celestron SLT mount, like howling 😉 But all night long it was operating correctly. I have little problems with corrector plate of my C5 SCT too, but dew shield works not bad. Most problems we have with the eyepieces. Puting the eyepiece to the poket at several minutes – that was an easy solution of this problem.
During that night my equipment looks like that: 🙂

Thank You, and sorry for my bad english.

The Moon and Venus in Front of My Home

Subject: Crescent Moon and Venus in front of my home

Hi Artists,all o.k.?O.k. for me at moment.This spring is very strange,in this moment cold and clouds and rain….i’m without words.
I sent my last sketch of great vision:Crescent Moon and Venus at sunset,made with my little bino 10×50 on trypod.
I am return from work and i see that beautyfull vision on clear blu sky.The seeing was perfect,very clear and on terrace of my room i mounted my trypod and my bino.
i made very quyckly this sketch and i stay ubeliever about the shadow of Moon,i don’t see one like that! Very clear,i can see the clear and the dark zones….incredible!
Under the Moon you can see the top of cypress of the hill folded by the wind.
At next and clear sky….i hope!
Ciao,Giorgio.

Site:Pergola,Marche Region,Center Italy.
Date:14 June 2010 10 p.m. Local time.
Instrument:Bino 10×50 on trypod
Seeing:Excelent
Technics:White pastel and pen on azure paper.

Venus – May 23, 2010

Venus
Venus – May 23, 2010
By Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

Hello.
I want to present my latest sketch of the planet Venus.

Object: Venus
Scope: Schmidt-Cassegrain 5″ with SW SWA58 9mm (also with barlow x1,6)
Filter: #80A Blue
Date & time: May 23th, 2010. 9:10 PM
Place: Wrocław, Poland
Weather: Good. Seeing 3/5. Transparency 3/5
Technique: Graphite pencil.
Tooling: GIMP 2
Observer: Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

The Moon and Venus

Moon and Venus
Moon and Venus
By Carlos E. Hernandez

I was able to view the Waxing Crescent Moon (2 days old) and the planet Venus (-3.94m) over the western sky on May 16, 2010 (00:45 U.T.). The Moon and Venus were approximately six degrees apart. Earthshine was very noticeable over the unlit portion of the Moon. The pair was spectacular over a bluish-gray sky with low cumulus clouds floating over them. I hope that others were able to view the event as well.

Moon and Venus

Moon and Venus

Gibbous Venus and the Crescent Moon
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

The western sky at twilight was just cloud free enough for one to see the planet Venus and the 1.23 day old moon together.  I was about 12 hours away from catching a flight back to Chicago from Phoenix and I had just enough time for a quick free hand graphite sketch on copy paper before retiring for the night. I included with the sketch notes on the sky colors and cloud locations so that I could make an oil pastel drawing when I arrived back in Illinois.

Sketching:

This is a re-drawn sketch in oil pastels of the Moon and Venus in the western sky on dark blue construction paper 12” x 14”.
The original graphite sketch was completed in about 20 minutes on the back patio looking due west.
No optical aid was used.
At the time of the sketch (March 16, 2010, 7:26 pm local time) the moon was 1.5 % illuminated and only 1.25 days old. Lunation 1079
The sky was partly cloudy and filled with aircraft contrails especially in the west.
The air temperature was a pleasant 24° C (75° F).
Location: Mesa, Arizona

Frank McCabe

Conjunction Captivation

Moon, Venus and Mars

Moon, Venus and Mars Conjunction
Sketch and Details by Carlos E. Hernandez

I was able to observe the conjunction between the Waning Crescent Moon (25.7 days old), Venus (-4.21m), and Mars (1.14m) on June 19, 2009 (10:00 U.T.). I first noted the trio over in the eastern sky with the Moon approximately 34 degrees above the eastern horizon, Mars at ~29.5 degrees, and Venus at ~29 degrees. In the bright twilight sky Mars was a little difficult to pick out but once located it was easy to find. The sight was just as impressive using my Oberwerk 11 x 56 mm binoculars. Mars and Venus easily fitted in one binocular field. By combining three binocular fields I can place the trio as I noted them. I hope that others were able to view the conjunction as well.

Bino Moon Venus and Mars

Moon, Venus and Mars Conjunction through binoculars
Sketch and Details by Carlos E. Hernandez

Digital images produced in Photoshop CS3.

Carlos E. Hernandez