OBSERVING REPORT FOR APRIL 13, 2016

Location:  Lower West side Saint John, NB

Date Time:  April 13, 2016 2100-2110hrs

Weather: Clear, breezy, 4C with windchill of 0C

Attendance:  Myself.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi with 75-300mm lens on tripod.

Objective:  To view and image Mercury which was suppose to be low in the West just after sundown.

Highlights:

• Mercury was spotted easily, just above the paper mill, looking west, in the dusk twilight just after 2100hrs.  It showed up as an 'un-twinkling star', above the smoke from the factory.
• After viewing and imaging Mercury, noticed a bright 'star' moving across the Northern sky.  Took a 5 second image of it as it faded in the NE.  Confirmed on Heavens-above.com that its indeed the International Space Station.  According to the website and partially confirmed by my observation, the orbiting space station was suppose to make a long pass over our location from 2100-2106hrs.  It was just going out of sight as the camera started taking the image.
• Orion is now sitting low in the SW just after sundown.  It's brightest stars were just barely visible.
• A first Quarter Moon was in Gemini.
• Jupiter was shinning very bright in the SSE, fairly high up.

Images:

ISO 400, Shutter speed 1 second, F/5, Focal Length 170mm.

ISO 400, Shutter speed 5 seconds, F/4.5, Focal Length 75mm.