Observation by Chris Hooker: Mercury's sodium tail & the Pleiades...

Uploaded by

Chris Hooker

Observer

Chris Hooker

Observed

2022 Apr 29 - 20:43

Uploaded

2022 May 01 - 06:35

Objects

Mercury

Equipment

300mm F/4 Pentacon lens with 0.5x re-imager
Knight Optical sodium D line filter

Exposure

Stack of 13 frames of 30 seconds @ F/2

Location

near Didcot, Oxfordshire

Target name

Mercury

Title

Mercury's sodium tail & the Pleiades, 29 April 2022

About this image

Another image of Mercury's sodium tail, taken as the planet was passing close to the Pleiades. Theoretically the tail should have been at peak brightness because Mercury's radial velocity was at its maximum of 10 km/s. However, the western sky was rather hazy and there was a layer of high cloud which reduced the brightness and the contrast of the tail against the sky.

Files associated with this observation

Mercury tail 29 Apr 22 2143 1 crop.png (901.8 kB)

Like this image

Mike Harlow, James Weightman, Dr Paul Leyland, Jeremy Shears, Nick James, Dominic Ford, Nick Hewitt, Ron Johnson, Tim Haymes, Gerard Cauchi, David Basey, Martin Lewis, Jim Tomney, Steve Knight, Mel Gigg

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