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There seems to be a big media hype about the planetary “parade”, e.g.:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yd4z15r54o
Quite a few people today have asked me whether I have seen it and/or got some photographs of it. The media, aided by certain people who should know better, are making it out to be a very rare thing that won’t happen again until 2040.
Given that two of the planets (Mercury and Saturn) are very low in the evening twilight and two others (Uranus and Neptune) are not visible with the naked eye that only leaves Venus, Jupiter and Mars and they are spread out across the sky. It seems that people are making a lot of fuss over not much.
I tried to find Mercury and Saturn this evening. I managed to get Mercury in binoculars but no sign of Saturn. I understand that we want to encourage people to look at the night sky but this seems a bit OTT.
Yep, there’s no why that Saturn can be seen now without a telescope, low horizon and knowing precisely where to look, and obviously Neptune is totally invisible. I did a thing for the BBC news 6 & 10pm yesterday where they wanted a live image of a planet. Unfortunately they didn’t let me speak. If they had, I would have tried to inject some realism by explaining what people can really see.
Yes I was asked to get a group of people together for BBC News yesterday too.
They managed to show the bit where I said “Saturn and Mercury are low down over there but we can’t see them” on the Breakfast news version but chose not to in the 10 pm News.
I agree it’s not the most accurate representation but people are getting out and looking up. My neighbours who I dragged out to be a crowd for the TV crew loved it. Catherine Heymans got us out doing some public stargazing in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago and 200 excited people turned up to look through telescopes. More tionight hopefully.
Whatever it is, it’s working though. We’ll need to keep providing some reality without putting people off. Show them the good stuff!
MarkI did a thing for the BBC news 6 & 10pm yesterday where they wanted a live image of a planet
Yes ! Heard your name , looked up from the observatory computer screen and saw a live image Of Jupiter on the 10 o’clock news. Was that a live feed? That has to be some kind of first hasn’t it ?
Yes it was a live feed at just before 18:30, and then another one just before 22:30. These could be a first. I had it all ready to go before 18:00, then a shower of rain came across and I had to cap the telescope, but I left the run-off roof open, as to close it I would have had to park the scope, and might not have been able to get Jupiter on the chip again in time. Fortunately the cloud moved off quickly, stuff hadn’t got too wet, and it all worked at the right time.
I absolutely agree with Mark Phillips above – people are looking up, and that’s a great outcome in itself.
In the 15 minutes after the feature on the BBC news, there was a marked spike in traffic to the BAA website, even though the BAA homepage didn’t have much to offer beginners wanting to find the planets.
I think Catherine Heymans’ approach is spot on… “Hey, you’re looking for the planetary parade? That’s great – there are lots of planets to see right now. This is how you can see them. By the way, you don’t have a hope of seeing Saturn, but let’s not worry about that – Jupiter and Mars are pretty great”.
I’ve been observing this ‘for one night only’ event for some time. Yesterday evening I tried the 5-inch Taylor-Mak GoTo. The red dot finder worked OK until it was mounted on the ‘scope, then it refused to work. Aligning on Venus took quite some time – my kingdom for a standard finderscope. I eventually got the planet in the 25mm eyepiece which presented nice views of its crescent.
I slewed across to Jupiter; its pointing was many degrees out (perhaps my numpty knowledge of using the hand controller). After several minutes I located Jupiter and its four Galilean moons. Impressive sight. On pressing a button to align, the ‘scope shot off again, umpteen degrees away. More minutes spent recovering the planet…then the wrong key pressed again… 🙁
By this time I had a headache and wet knees from kneeling on the lawn to find Jupiter and Mars. I gave up with modern technology, brought a coffee table outside, plonked my Edmund Astroscan on it and had no problems finding all three bright planets. I had no patience or energy left to star hop to Uranus… 🙂
Alex.
Just wondering if anyone else was looking at the “planetary parade” last night (Feb 28) and may have seen the planets setting early in the evening. I took a photo at 18h 59m and assumed I was photographing Mercury and possibly Saturn in a straight line below Venus. I am now wondering if they would in fact be visible at that time? According to Stellarium they would have set by this time at my location in Kent.
So I would be most interested to know if anyone in southern England happens to have seen them.
Many thanksAttachments:
Yes, Saturn set at around 1825UT and Mercury at around 1900UT so it must have been something else. When looking for Mercury I’ve been fooled by distant aircraft which can remain apparently stationary for a long period.
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