Mercury and Venus an Awesome Duo at Dusk

universetoday.com ^ | on January 10, 2015 | Bob King

[BenLurkin]

Tonight the duo will be at their closest and remain near one another for the next week or so. This is one of Mercury’s best apparitions of the year for northern hemisphere skywatchers and well worth donning your winter uniform of coat, boots, hat and thick gloves for a look. Just find a location with a decent view of the southwestern horizon and start looking about a half hour after sunset. Mercury and Venus will be about 10° or one fist held at arm’s length high above the horizon.

[BenLurkin]

Mark your calendars for a cool conjunction of the 1-day-old lunar crescent, Mercury and Venus on January 21st. Source: Stellarium

[Beowulf9]

I will be looking for this tonight but what else is interesting on that site is you can find the comet Lovejoy by looking for Orion’s belt and then looking to the right and up about 20 degrees:)

[ratzoe]

And where is Comet Lovejoy?? Southeastern sky?

[ratzoe]

LOL..you read my mind as I was typing.

[radu]

I finally got to see the comet last night. We’ve had clouds, clouds, and more clouds for weeks.
I only used binoculars because it was too durn cold and windy to mess with the telescope. But the comet was quite obvious when I got them aimed at the right spot.

I hope the clouds will stay away this evening so I can view Mercury and Venus.

[BenLurkin]

How to Find and Make the Most of Comet Lovejoy
http://www.universetoday.com/118069/how-to-find-and-make-the-most-of-comet-lovejoy/#more-118069

[Moonman62]

I hope I have clear weather on the 21st. I first saw Venus and Mercury last week, and it’s still a good show today. A person doesn’t need to wait until the 21st.

[Don W]

Clouds, you at least have the possibility of them clearing.

I’ve had FOG, FOG, and more FOG. When it’s not foggy, it decides to cloud over and rain.

It clears up beautifully during the late morning, early afternoon.

4PM hits, and *IT* rolls in again!

[mikrofon]

Some alternate info:

Catch Mercury and Venus shining closest together as twilight fades on Saturday evening the 10th. Little Mars looks on from their upper left.

By Saturday the 17th, Mercury is pulling away to Venus's right.

[left that other site]

Ping! :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks left that other site, extra to APoD!

[opbuzz]

I saw them when driving home,only things visible in N FL. I wondered who they were.

[KoRn]

Been watching that the last few evenings with clear skies. Looks nice!

[radu]

Dec. was cloudy at least 95% of the month. This month hasn’t started off much better but at least we had clear skies last night - - and this evening!
But we’ll have clouds and wet weather starting tomorrow through the rest of the week.

We get our share of fog, usually late at night, since the back of our farm drops off to a lake. At least it does clear off, unlike these durn clouds that keep moving in for days and days at a time.

Mercury and Venus were closer together than I expected. A lovely sight. Now I hope the sky stays clear until after I eat supper. It’s cold but there’s no wind and I want to try to see the comet through the telescope.

[KarlInOhio]

Thanks. Saw it tonight on a rare cloudless evening.

[ratzoe]

I finally got to see the comet last night. We’ve had clouds, clouds, and more clouds for weeks. I only used binoculars because it was too durn cold and windy to mess with the telescope. But the comet was quite obvious when I got them aimed at the right spot.

Same here, took the telescope out but after finding the comet with binoculars, was way too cold and went in.It's supposed to be a tad warmer tonight but they are calling for ice/sleet overnight so it may be too cloudy. Unbelievably clear last night, I should have toughed it out.

[radu]

Hey, at least we got to see it with binoculars, right? Better ‘n nuthin’.
Stepped outside after supper in hopes of seeing clear sky but the clouds had already rolled in. Telescope stayed put. :-(
Clouds and rain for the next several days here so .......