I spent last week at a remote dark site. A fellow observer forgot to turn off his new goto scope at the end of the night. As a result, around noon we were watching Venus and Mercury - both beautiful and half-full. This was by far the best view of Mercury I had ever had. Being so high in the sky undoubtedly helped with the seeing.
That's one of the big advantages of having a permanent observatory. I always put my scope into "hibernate" mode at the end of a night's observing, and then can just switch it on a day or a week later, and observe in full daylight. I've observed Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Sirius and Procyon in full daylight this way.
I spent last week at a remote dark site. A fellow observer forgot to turn off his new goto scope at the end of the night. As a result, around noon we were watching Venus and Mercury - both beautiful and half-full. This was by far the best view of Mercury I had ever had. Being so high in the sky undoubtedly helped with the seeing.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the big advantages of having a permanent observatory. I always put my scope into "hibernate" mode at the end of a night's observing, and then can just switch it on a day or a week later, and observe in full daylight. I've observed Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Sirius and Procyon in full daylight this way.
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