Elusive Mercury

Hi all,
Thanks for all the responses to my posts about Mercury. It is usually
difficult to see because of clouds even if you know exactly where to look. I
was surprised that Another Dave did not see the gibbous phase of Mercury as
it was about 50% illuminated and should have shown this phase. However if
the telescope was not cooled down to the outside temperature plus the low
altitude of Mercury also affecting the image quality also. I cannot set up
my LX90 8" from my house to see the western horizon so I have to use
binoculars or naked eye viewing on a recreational field near to me. I
wonder what the dog walkers have thought of me the last few nights. Is this
a dog poo inspector is probably what they thought?
If you observe Venus every fortnight for the next few months you will see
it get larger in size and gradually start to show a phase. It will be 50%
phase on August 18th 2010 and at the moment it is 91% phase. However it will
be difficult to see in August as it is setting when the Sun is only 6
degrees below the horizon. Probably the last time to observe the phase will
be in mid to late July. This information is from Cartes du Ciel which I find
good for basic astronomy use.