by Jay Reynolds Freeman
February, 1999, has not been much for observing. I did haul Refractor Red, my 55 mm Vixen fluorite, out for a look at Mars early in the month, but the tiny disc showed only a hint of nonhomogeneous coloring, low in the sky at 110x. Clouds blocked any serious attempts at deep-sky work during the dark of the Moon, as well.
On the 22nd, I looked at Venus and Jupiter with a 7x35 binocular, nearly a day before their closest approach. Threatening clouds in the west got me out in the parking lot at work, near the shores of San Francisco Bay in Mountain View, California, while the sun was still up. After much fussing I did succeed in spotting the duo not long before sunset. By 6 or 6:30 PM, local time, they were well-placed and bright, and I dragged a few co-workers outside for naked-eye viewing. We also spotted Mercury, down close to the hill line, and Saturn was of course well placed higher in the sky.
During the next day, I tried binoculars during noon hour, at the time of closest appulse, but thin cirrus blocked the view till very late afternoon. At dusk, however, the planetary pair was gorgeous -- the folks who called this the prettiest conjunction in fifty years must surely be right. I had brought Refractor Red to work, and set it up out on the walk, using a Brandon 12 mm eyepiece and a 2x Celestron Ultima Barlow. Jupiter was larger but much paler than its companion. The ghostly giant planet showed several belts and three Galilean satellites, all in the same 74x field of view as featureless bright Venus. I also spotted Mercury again, but seeing close to the horizon precluded saying anything about its appearance beyond that it was definitely non-stellar.
Again I dragged fellow employees out. Many had never viewed any astronomical objects through a telescope, and almost no one had ever seen Mercury at all. Everyone agreed that the conjunction was a beautiful naked-eye sight. As for the telescopic views, the typical comments started cynically but soon altered: "How do you see through this thi-- Oh, WOW!" I just chuckled. The apparition was sufficiently enchanting that no one even noticed Refractor Red's fluorescent color... Later on we looked at Saturn, another telescopic first for several. It was a fine evening.