Observing Report for September 20/10

OBSERVING REPORT

Date: September 20, 2010 2230-0055hrs

Location: Prince of Wales, NB

Weather: 10 degrees Celsius, clear, gusting winds

Attendance: Anthony M, David M

Equipment: 150 mm reflector on EQ3 mount, 32mm and 16mm eyepieces, mounted C190 Kodak digital camera, mounted 20x80 binoculars.

Report: There was a very bright waxing gibbous moon high in the south. Jupiter was about the same elevation but to the East.

This was the night of opposition for Jupiter and also a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus(nice pic of Jupiter, 4 of its moons and a faint green Uranus is below). The Earth will not be this close to Jupiter again until 2022, and it was very easy to tell that we were close, as three of Jupiter's moons showed up with binoculars( normally only get two).

Jupiter was huge when viewed and its moons were brighter than I have ever seen them. The moons were nicely spread apart with two on each side. With the 16mm eyepiece, a faint reddish line could be seen across Jupiter, although this did not show up in the pictures.

Anthony was very impressed with how nicely Jupiter showed up in the binoculars. He was also impressed with M45 thru the binos. I also observed M45 which was in the east, and looked for the Andromeda Galaxy M31 to no avail. M31 was almost straight up around midnight, which makes finding it hard with the binos. The bright moon did not help either and normally I can pick it out with my naked eye but could not on this night.

Obtained many nice pictures of the moon. It was so bright that it would actually sting your eye to look at it. This is where the camera comes in handy, as it absorbs the glare so you can just stand back and observe in comfort. Nice views of Tyco, and Mare Crissum. Looked for 'The Lady On The Moon', found it, but it did not come into focus well.

I am finding that this camera is not focusing well on a lot of shots. The end picture ends up being out of focus, even though it looks in focus when you take it. Overall, I am not happy with the Kodak digital camera. I find it overly complicated compared to the Olympus and its pictures are routinely out of focus.

We also observed the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia and Pegasus.

Pictures for this night are in the next post.