On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 11:54:20 AM UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:
On 19/07/2017 10:58, Gerald Kelleher wrote:
I had a look through the NASA website dedicated to the eclipse -

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/science

Of course there is no relevant information as to where the position
of the inner planets will be as the moon shields the Sun's glare
momentarily so we see whether Mercury is to the left of the Sun and
Venus to the right of the Sun from our slower moving Earth
perspective -

http://www.theplanetstoday.com/

On the 21st August it would suggest that Mercury will just be about
visible whereas there is no such issue with Venus. This is just a
normal judgment that shouldn't raise the slightest objection and
gives a sense of the normalization of heliocentricity but of course
the celestial sphere crowd just don't want to know.

Stellarium will give you a perfectly good simulation of where Mercury,
Mars and Venus will be seen near the sun at totality 21/8/17 if you
choose a suitable location along the path of totality.


Stellarium is celestial sphere software and is not even in the same realm as the astronomical discussion here notwithstanding that RA/Dec is a huge obstacle to contextual astronomy -

https://software.grok.lsu.edu/articl...rticleid=12680

Your observations make no distinction between the inner Venus and Mercury as opposed to Mars as they are jumbled up because you have yet to make the transition to the type of astronomy which easily identifies the inner planets in relation to a stationary central Sun much like Jupiter's satellites orbit their central celestial object.


Regulus at 2 degrees from the sun will also be notable. Procyon, Sirius
and Betlegeuse should also be prominent in the darkened sky.


There is no budget in Stellarium for the transition of the stars from left to right as the software is calendar based and places significance in the annual motion of the Sun. The background stars in the Sun's glare will be the zodiacal Leo until these stars move right (due to the Earth's orbital motion) and become dawn appearances and far enough to one side of the Sun's glare to be seen.

Lets hope it is clear sky for the event!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Mercury will be retrograde on the eclipse as the planet swings in front of the Sun whereas Venus will be moving in the opposite direction as it runs its circuit behind the central Sun.

These are some of the insights that are left out of the eclipse.