OBSERVING REPORT FOR JUNE 17, 2015

Location:  Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 17, 2015 2130-0130hrs

Weather:  @ 2200hrs-Mostly clear, kind of hazy, no wind and 12C.
                  @ 0130hrs-Mostly cloudy, clouds moving in slowly from the North, hazy, no wind 5C.

Equipment:  Meade 8" LX 200 Telescope with 19mm and 9mm eyepieces.  Eds' 15x70 binoculars.  Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR camera with 18-55mm lens, and a Samsung Nexus 4 cellphone camera with Ioptron cellphone adapter.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly and Myself.

Objectives:  To locate and image Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, M4, Gamma Cepheus and Comet Lovejoy.  To do a Galaxy search in and around the Virgo Cluster.

Report Highlights: This night was one day past new moon, so when it wasn't cloudy it was very nice seeing.  The first time I have ever seen the Little Dipper.

Viewed and imaged Venus and Jupiter well before dark.  Only three moons of Jupiter were visible.  Viewed and imaged Saturn shortly after dark with the cellphone.

Aligned scope on Denebola in Leo.  Searched the Virgo Cluster, the area halfway in between Denebola and Vindemiatrix.  One very bright Galaxy showed up as a bright fuzzy patch, with a lesser fuzzy patch close by. Another pair of galaxies were also observed.  Ed observed this as well.  Did a scan around this area and not much else stood out.

At this point, Antares came out from behind the trees.  The goto was used to slew to M4, but it wasn't in the field of view.  After a long search, the faintish globular cluster popped into view of the 19mm eyepiece.  Ed commented how there seemed to be a line of stars through it.  I noted how it the globular seemed to be looser than most gobs and is much fainter than M13.  Images were taken with DSLR.

Ed and I both did a search for Comet Lovejoy which was near the Little Dipper.  We could not confirm a sighting.

Located and viewed M13, which was straight overhead at 0130hrs.  It was huge and bright with many dozens of stars visible.  No images were taken as the clouds slowly cover it, thus ending the observing session.  By this time, 0130hrs, most of the sky was covered by cloud.

Two Satelites were seen and Ed thought he seen one shooting star.

Images:

Jupiter and two of its Moons.

Jupiter and three of its Moons.

Venus

M4

M4

Saturn

Saturn