Maximum elongation of Mercury: Mission failure!!!

[willis]

It is one of my listed challenges that to image Mercury. This morning I woke up at 3:00am & went to Shek O with Lewis. I knew the weather forecast was bad. The sky condition was bad when I wake up at 3:00am. I told myself that if I give up, the chance is zero. If I insist to go, there still some chance to achieve it. Finally the mission is failed. I needed to wait for next elongation.
Both Lewis & I used 8” SCT, mine was M8 & Lewis’ scope was C8. We planned to use 5X Powermate to make the tiny bean to sufficiently big. But we failed to see anything. When we arrived Shek O at about 3:45am, we saw barely two stars only. We guessed they were Rigel & Betelgeuse. They were on & off in the sky. The condition was really disappointing. We did the setup quick & stared at the east. Mercury of magnitude -0.58 didn’t show up! We waited until the sky became totally bright & went to have breakfast together. This is the end of a failed mission log…
Willis’ equipment list:
M8
TV5X Powermate
EQ5Pro
DBK21

[Lewis]

One good thing in this trip, I can successfully setup LPI, 5X Powermate with C8 to focus the far object of street light. But still cannot adjust the better exposure of video :<~~~.

Willis, I doubly checked the Stellarium, those two stars are Procyon and Sirius.

[社長]

I told myself that if I give up, the chance is zero. If I insist to go, there still some chance to achieve it.

我想這是任何一個有多年經驗的愛好者的心聲，我們可以做最好的準備，但最後成功與否，還是由天決定。而這些準備，是要用智慧及勇氣去做的。

回想去年7月，我們定在蘇州觀看本世紀最長日全食，據事前預報安徽那裡是最好、江蘇那裡機會大些...... 但最後整個華東都籠罩在雷雨區內，日食帶掃過2億人口的多城市，但東部最理想的城市也只有數分鐘時間看到日食，人口最多的上海，則10萬人在狂風驟雨下聽天由命。

日食早上八時多開始，我在前一晚的午夜時份還在未下決定，究竟是往西開車數百公里逃出雷雨區? 往東走在海邊聽天由命? 留在蘇州打發時間? 坦白說，當數千萬人和我一樣命運時，我有足夠的理由去放棄的。但我最後告訴自己，不能守株待兔，早上6時開車無目的地的向西行，走到那裡見藍天就停在那裡，因為日食是要追的，不是守的。到了早上7時了多，天色並沒有好轉，隨行的西班牙隊伍已開始埋怨我是否做錯決定，打電話說浙江臨海一帶有轉機，不如回頭云云。我很清楚要看足整個日食過程是不切實際的了，但那5分鐘才是精華，錯過了其餘部份，看到了那5分鐘就無憾。

結果半小時後在我們看到頭頂出現一片藍天，就馬上在高速公路上最近的汽車服務區停下來，日食已開始了，再花半小時加起望遠鏡，天色也漸轉晴，最後從全食前一分鐘到生光後一分鐘，看足7分鐘不受干擾的世紀日食，生光後半小時又烏雲密佈，甚至又下起雨來，但我們已心滿意足未待日食完結便收拾東西，下午三時回到上海機場，傍晚時份帶著勝利的心情回到香港。

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/galaxyscient ... le?mid=506

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBEzZVfb_I4