It means everyone is probably getting sick around here and having bad days because Mercury is in retrograde. At least, that's what my co-worker once said in front of like fifteen people.
I've heard stupider believe it or not. Once some co-workers and I went outside to see the ISS pass overhead and one of them said "can they see the Earth from up there?"
I forgot to mention- this woman was the chief news anchor for the local evening TV news.
I literally just got into astrophotography and found this out pretty recently. Still nice to see, but it does suck that I'll have to wait a few years to get cooler pictures!
This is just with my phone and an 8" reflector telescope on a manual dobsonian base (touched up in gimp):
Thanks! That image isn't stacked, but I am just getting into learning about all of that. I think I'm having an issue with clarity (I'm just using my pixel 8 pro and a cheapo phone adapter hooked up to my telescope) so the stacking software I've tried isn't picking up on most frames.
If I have to begrudgingly thank Trump for anything, it's pushing me to buy a seestar s50 now before prices go up with the tarrifs so I'll be getting much better images soon! Not for planets though lol It's mostly for deep space objects.
From the planet itself they would appear stationary, yes. From basically any other solar system body they change because basically everything orbits at wonky angles.
I saw Saturn at an observatory long before I had my own telescope, but that heart-skip-a-beat moment the first time you see Saturn with your own telescope is like nothing else.
I remembering bringing my 5" dobson to a work retreat camping trip. Everyone was pretty boozed up to the point where they were struggling to keep their eyes steady in the eyepiece.
When one of my coworkers finally got everything lined up he just blurted out "HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT'S SATURN!"
Location on Earth will change timing for really precise events like occultations. Location on Earth will not affect any DSO's visual "closeness" to the moon, especially not at the low zoom scale of binoculars. Hemisphere will only change which is on top. At 1/40th the distance to the moon, moving from pole to pole only changes the view the amount standing 1 foot to the left changes the view of an object 40ft away