Return2009 was the year of the Long Eclipse - the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st Century was on 22nd July. I viewed the event from just south-west of Shanghai but didn't have much luck - see my Eclipse pages for the full story. There were nine conjunctions to see, but all bar one of them was near dawn - not my best time! The list does include two events involving the asteroid Vesta though, which is somewhat unusual and probably worth getting up for. On the planetary front, the rings of Saturn were almost exactly "edge-on" to the Earth at the start of the year, thus giving a very unusual view of the planet, and Jupiter encountered Neptune. Minor planet Ceres was spotted between the clouds, as was Juno at a very favourable opposition, and as a bonus a comet streaked past at high speed.
The themes for 2008 were "coming together" and "cloud". The total lunar eclipse in February was somewhat spoilt by said cloud, the large partial in August was completely blotted out and the occultation of Venus was entirely invisible throughout its entire duration for the same reason!! The "Jupiter Without Satellites" event just before dawn on 22nd May, when for about 20mins none of the Galilean moons was visible due to being either occulted (behind the planet), in transit (in front of the planet) or eclipsed (in the planet's shadow), was also obscured by cloud [naturally!]. Such events are rather rare - just 45 in the two centuries from 1900 to 2100, with the next not until 2033 - so I'm not particularly confident about seeing another! It goes without saying that the total solar eclipse on 1st August was rather a disaster - yep, cloud again. However there were seven major planetary conjunctions to try to observe [cloud permitting!], plus a bonus one with the moon, and the year ended with Venus and Neptune also comnig close.
2007 was the year of the moon! In the early months it featured in conjunctions with Venus and then Saturn before occulting Saturn and being totally eclipsed on successive days. Saturn itself came to opposition in February and Mercury and Venus were nicely visible at sunset around the same time. Later in the year there was a close conjuction of Venus and Saturn plus one between the moon and Uranus, and Jupiter and the asteroid Vesta also came together in late August for a most unusual (and very close) conjunction. I was able to capture both Uranus and Neptune in September and then a comet unexpectedly burst into prominence in November. The moon returned to action yet again with a near occultation of Mars on Christmas Eve (behind cloud!).
The winter of 2004/5 was a little quieter but still provided good opportunities to observe Saturn and Jupiter, and in the case of Saturn to spot another moon and see how the view of the rings had changed since the previous year. There was a very close conjunction of Mercury and Venus in June to look forward to, then a further annular eclipse in October.
The highlight of 2006 was a total solar eclipse but Saturn was again well placed early in the year and then a close conjunction between it and Mars in June and between Mercury, Venus & Saturn during August, together with a rare triple conjunction in December, gave opportunities to add to my collection. Mercury also obliged with a brief visit during a spell of fine weather in June.
The period from May 2003 to June 2004 was a particularly good one for astronomical observations. It began with an annular eclipse of the sun and the transit of Mercury, continued with a very close approach of Mars, and ended with Venus being nicely seen in the early summer skies before it also passed across the sun in transit. There were also the oppositions of Saturn then Jupiter to consider and also a chance to see an outer planet.
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