Mercury and Saturn very close conjunction - 26 Nov 2013

[Gary]

Mercury & Saturn very close conjunction (< 0.5°) tmr early morn 26 Nov. Very challenging to see but not impossible IF the sky is clear enough.







More info: http://www.astro.sg/2013/11/mercury-and ... close.html

[starfinder]

This morning, Wed 27 Nov 2013, at 6:15am, I saw Mercury and Saturn in the ESE with unaided eyes. They were 1.2 degrees apart and at just 7 and 8 degrees above the horizon, and bathed in the bright glow of morning twilight as the Sun was then 9 degrees below in horizon. The planets were sharp, bright and distinct. Quite unusual for our skies!

Good to see Saturn back in our morning skies.

I also managed to view, as a test, nearby Beta Librae (mag 2.6), in the eyepiece of my telescope. It was then just under 4 degrees above the horizon.


PS: last night at around midnight the skies esp in the East and NE were very clear! I managed to view (unaided eyes) a mag 4.2 star in Gemini from my home in Singapore city. Did not try for fainter stars. Maybe the clear skies was to compensate for the extreme cloudiness of the last 2 weeks, but it's a few days too late for Ison. Sigh...

[Gary]

Congrats! No joy here at Toa Payoh. Your observation location must be blessed with better clearer skies.

Thanks for proving the point that this is not impossible in Singapore at such a low altitude as long as the sky is clear enough at the right time and at the right spot in the sky!