Astronomy Observing Reports: LUNAR X

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

LUNAR X

Location: Front yard in Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time: July 11, 2016 2230-0015hrs ADT

Weather: Mostly clear, but very hazy, no wind and 14C. Some Mosquitoes and lots of moths.

Attendance: Myself.

Equipment: Canadian Telescopes 80ED/APO on Vixen Alt/Az mound. 2x barlow with 4mm and 19mm eyepieces. Ioptron cellphone adapter with 15mm eyepiece and a Nexus 4 Cellphone camera, Canon Rebel Xsi attached to Telescope at prime focus and tripod mounted with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.

Objective: To view and image the Lunar X which was reported to be forming on the 'Rascals' email link.

Highlights:

Lunar X was visible as soon as telescope was set up and focused, through the camera. It seemed to get brighter as the night went on. Needed more magnification to see it well, that is why Barlow was attached. Couldn't get the image to focus in the big camera with Barlow attached. Barlow worked fine with cellphone camera. Moon was swimming in the eyepiece with the hazy atmosphere swirling above. Thankfully clear though, after almost a week of rain and clouds.
Jupiter went down below the trees, in the west by the time I was done imaging and viewing the Lunar X.
Mars, located in the SSW, showed up as a reddish disk with different colors playing about its edges.
Saturn, located in the S, above Antares, was observed with its rings at a very steep angle. Many of its moons were visible around it...but some of them could have been background stars. No images taken.
M4, a globular cluster, two degrees west of Antares was also viewed through 19mm eyepiece attached to Barlow. It was faint and looked more like a misty cloud. Can really see how Messier could have mistaken this for a Comet.
The Big Dipper was high in the NW.
Cassiopeia was low in the NE.
Cygnus was high, almost overhead to the East.
One satellite and no shooting stars were seen.

Images and Video: