As was pointed out on Friday at our society meeting in Milton Keynes,
there are goings-on in the Southwest at twilight and just before
dark.
Venus, Mercury and Uranus are close together.
Last night (3 Feb), Mercury and Uranus were equidistant from Venus,
Mercury being lowest and Uranus highest. Mercury and Venus were
visible to the naked-eyeand in twilight but Uranus required binoculars
(7x50)and I had to wait for the twilight to subdue to spot it. Uranus
looked quite bright at mag +6.1 but then the sky conditions were
exceptional.
Tonight (4 Feb), the distance between Venus and Mercury had almost
doubled and Venus was a little bit closer to Uranus. The horizon was
hazy and I struggled to find Uranus in binoculars as there were some
slow moving bands of haze in the area. I finally fixed it with a bit
of patience.
I feel that the conjunction between Venus and Uranus is watchable with
a clear horizon but it depends now on the weather on the 7th.
Pierre MK-UK