And Mercury Too...

I really should prepare myself better before I go out observing.

Paul S, over on the SPA BB, pointed out that I should have captured Mercury along with the Moon and Venus. This is where I should have been prepared, I hadn't even realised that Mercury was visible around that time from that location.

I fired up Starry Night and had a look at where Mercury was and then went back and looked at the photographs I took and, sure enough, in just the right spot, there was faint little Mercury.

Of course, in the photograph I posted yesterday, my unprepared head was occulting the planet.

Have a look at this image. It's a blown-up crop of this:

Click image for larger picture

If you look carefully in the bottom right hand corner you'll be able to see Mercury.

So, on Saturday night, not only did I photograph a conjunction, I also managed to photograph an occultation of Mercury too. ;-)