Mercury and the Leonid's

[Unitron48]

Yesterday started with a 5 am wake up call to check out Mercury...and ended about 5 am this morning following a night of observing the Leonid Meteor Shower.

Mercury was the last planet I needed to check out before the end of the year. The "messenger god" is still pretty high in the sky right before sunrise and provided a decent view. I used my 60 year old "grab and go", 60 mm, f/15 Unitron for the event (see pic).

Much later in the day, three of us from the Culpeper Astronomy Club bundled up on a chilly night with a cold breeze starting at 11:30 pm and continuing until about 4:30 am this morning. We captured 43 meteors with about half of them Leonid's.

All in all a successful 24 hours! The Geminids are next up

Dave

[Makuser]

Hi Dave. A great report from you with the old 60mm Unitron refractor. Well, half of 43 is still a good count for the Leonids. And, congratulations on catching Mercury, as many amateur astronomers have never seen the "winged messenger" planet. Thanks for your fun read report Dave, and I hope to see you here in Florida before too long.

[messier 111]

thank you for this report.
I'm happy to see you managed to see her before the end of the year.

[Unitron48]

Hi Dave. A great report from you with the old 60mm Unitron refractor. Well, half of 43 is still a good count for the Leonids. And, congratulations on catching Mercury, as many amateur astronomers have never seen the "winged messenger" planet. Thanks for your fun read report Dave, and I hope to see you here in Florida before too long.

Thanks, Marshall, I've actually observed Mercury a number of times over the years (most recent: 2004, 2005, 2015, 2018, Solar transit 2019). You sometimes have to locate an observing site with a low horizon...and get up early!!

Regards,
Dave

[helicon]

Great catches Dave and I'm glad that you also saw the Leonids in addition Mercury. I'm sharing a photo of the Venus - Mercury conjunction of last Spring that I snapped.

[John Baars]

Thanks for this great report.
Quite a number of Leonids!
Good to use a classic telescope on the antique gods..!
To look at it is almost as pleasant as looking through it:-)

[Unitron48]

Good to use a classic telescope on the antique gods..!
To look at it is almost as pleasant as looking through it:-)

Thanks, John! Using that Unitron (my first telescope acquired in 1960) brings back lots of wonderful memories

Dave

[Bigzmey]

Well done Dave! You are the master of meteors. Do you keep the total count over the years?

[Unitron48]

Thanks! Yes, I have logged in all the major meteor showers observed over the past 20 years. The Leonids are my least observed.

Dave

[Lady Fraktor]

A long but fine day Dave! Congratulations, I only managed to see 3 meteors so far.