Moon-Venus Conjunction during daylight - a real challenge!

On page 57 of "De Hemelkalender 2023" (astro calender 2023) we can read that on Sunday April 23, 2023 UT11h30, the Moon and Venus are in conjunction. In the beginning of this year that we agreed to observe this event with our Helios astronomy club. Unfortunately weatherforecast was not good and only the morning would be cloudfree. So the gathering was moved to the morning and 4 members showed up. A binocular, ETX70, refractors and telelens was set up to find the Moon and/or Venus. It's a challenge and really not easy to find the Moon during day time and when the Sun overshines the sky. It took us almost an hour to locate the Moon and Venus. Just in time to take some pictures.

Venus-Mercury in the evening sky

 

Clear skies in April 17 and 18 with the planets Venus and Mercury in the evening sky. Mercury is getting fainter everyday and moving towards the Sun. The apparent distance between Venus and the Pleiades is also increasing when comparing with my previous observations earlies this month.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/5.6, 40mm, ISO800, 3s exposure time. Editing using CS4.

Fireball on Monday April 17 19h32UT

During twilight UT19h32 of April 17 a very bright fireball was observed which went from 45° North towards NW uptill the horizon.
In total 250 reports were send in via amsmeteors and the meteor was also captured by MIRA (see this link)


Link to my report: https://amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/report/308827

Venus and Mercury 2,5° above horizon

 

Venus and Mercury low above the western horizon. At UT20h20 (local time 22h20), Mercury was about 2,5° above the horizon. Unfortunately the location was badly light pollutioned, but still the Pleiades, some stars from constellation Taurus and of course Mercury could be captured.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/5.6 38mm, ISO3200, 3s exposure time
Editing using CS4.

Venus, Pleiades and Mercury

 

Venus near Pleiades and Mercury about 1,5h after sunset. Mercury can be seen low above the horizon (about 4° above the horizon)  and 2 days after greatest elongation.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/4.5 28mm ISO1600 3s
Limited editing using CS4.

Needle Galaxy NGC4565

The Needle galaxy (NGC4565, Caldwell38) is located in constellation Coma Berenices and about 40 lightyears away from Earth. It's an edge-on spiral galaxy and a member of the Coma I group.

Image was taken on April 3 with the Moon 95% illuminated. These condiations were not ideal and next time I will not take images near the full moon.

Setting: TAL200K f/8.5, ASI2600MC, Guidingscope 50x229 with ASI224MC on EQ8R-Pro

Lights: 31x300s (bin2x2 , -10°C), Flats, Darks and Bias

Software: ASIair Plus, APP, CS4, DeNoise AI

1 Year to go: Total Solar Eclipse April 8 2024

 One year from now, on April 8, 2024, the next total solar eclipse in northern America will be visible. 

See also this link to Total Solar Eclipse