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Thanks Frank.

I don't have enough practical experience with lunars to answer questions like 
that.  There is a phase, I can see that phase with my 11x scope and I was 
just curious.

It should be interesting to see the outcome of the Venus Lunars that Jeremy 
shot.  Did the phase of Venus really affect his result?

Best Regards
Brad


________________________________________
From: navlist@fer3.com [navlist@fer3.com] On Behalf Of 
frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.com [frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 3:59 AM
To: NavList@fer3.com
Subject: [NavList 9871] Re: Exercise Lunar Distance with Mercury

Brad, you wrote:
"Since Mercury is an inferior planet and very near to the Sun, Mercury always
shows a phase when we can see it.
Did you see the phase of Mercury when performing the observation?  What power scope?
When aligning the limb of Mercury to the limb of the Moon, were both curved
limbs in alignment or were caused to estimate the tangency, because the
phases of both objects were out of alignment."

Er... This is negligible. Mercury has a very small angular semi-diameter 
--about 5 seconds of arc when favorably placed. Now, in a lunar observation 
with a planet that has a discernible diameter, you have three choices: place 
the limb of the planet (only one available) on the Moon's limb, place the 
geometric center of the planet on the Moon's limb, or place the center of 
illumination on the Moon's limb. The illuminated limb of Mercury and its 
geometric center would be separated by about 5 seconds at a favorable 
appearance, while the center of illumination would fall in between. It would 
rarely amount to a difference greater than a few seconds of arc. In other 
words, this difference is safely negligible. So which choice should you 
actually use if the options are available? The historical recommendation was 
almost invariably to use the geometric center. A peek through a 
higher-powered telescope can help here if you're not certain about the phase 
at low power. In practice for modern lunarians, most will end up using the 
center of illumination, and for that the positions in the standard Nautical 
Almanac are appropriate. Personally, I don't recommend using any planet with 
a really substantial difference between center of illumination, geometric 
center, and illuminated limb. That rules out only one planet: the planet 
Venus. Don't shoot Moon-Venus lunars.

-FER




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