SOLAR ECLIPSE 2017

Location:  Truck stop in Peticodiac, NB, Canada

Date Time:  August 21, 2017 1500-1700hrs.

Weather:  Breezy, partly cloudy to mostly cloudy, 25C.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO attached to a Vixen Alt/Az mount, 12mm eyepiece, Cellphone adapter and a Samsung Nexus 5 cellphone camera.

Attendance:  Six people who happened to be in the area at the time and myself.

Objective:  To view and image the partial solar eclipse which was happening on this day from approx 1400-1700hrs.

Report:

• A truly amazing sight in the eye piece, with many sunspots across the face of the Sun.  Interesting how the Moon and the Sun are almost exactly the same size, from our viewpoint, in the sky.
• Six passerby's came over to view the eclipse through the telescope. All were very impressed.  One man said, amazed, "The old lady ain't going to believe this!"

Images and Videos:

GEMINIDS 2017

Location:  Backyard Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 14, 2017 0310-0356hrs

Weather:  Partly to mostly cloudy, gusting winds moving to just north of east, -10C.

Attendance:  Myself.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel DSLR with 18-55mm lens on tripod.

Objective:  To observe as many Geminid meteors as possible during peak hour for this shower, which was reported to be between 0300-0400hrs on this morning.

Report:  Very dark skies with no Moon showing at this time.  Clouds were a factor, covering one part of the sky then another, but moved on quickly, and they were partially see-through.  No dew issue with camera, took many pictures.  Captured four geminids in four separate images.

Geminids came in bursts of two or three at a time and at one time the sky seemed to full of them, around 0340hrs.  Counted 32 Geminids with only 1 Sporadic.  Geminids were mostly quite bright, blue/white moving medium speed and medium brightness.  A few fainter ones, and two very bright ones.  One very very long and bright and left a smoke trail, to the right of Polaris.  Most observed were in the northern sky, between Ursa Major and Cassiopeia.

Seemed, on average, there was about 1 Geminid/min.  Best meteor shower I've seen in since the early 90s.

Geminid streaking past Polaris.

Facing southwest with Orion behind the big tree.

Note:  Images of shooting stars turned out much fainter than what was observed for some reason.

OBSERVING REPORT FOR JUNE 26, 2017

Location:  Front Yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 26, 2017 2250-2450 hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear, cool, 7C, no wind to slight breeze, dewy, a few bugs.

Attendance:  Myself.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on vixen motorized mount, 19mm eyepiece.  Cellphone camera attached to eyepiece.  Canon Rebel Xsi attached to telescope at prime focus.

Objective:  To learn how to operate a new to me motorized mount for telescope.  To search for Comet Johnson which was suppose to be around mag 8 and in between constellations Libra and Virgo.

Report:

• After practicing inside for a while, set up in front yard once it got dark enough.  After one failed attempt at aligning scope, tried again then got it.  Mount worked fantastic at finding and then tracking objects, although I mainly stayed in SW sky whole time.
• GoTo easily found M3 and M5.  Both globular clusters showed up brightly in 19 mm eyepiece, with M5 very close to a bright star.
• Searched for Comet Johnson around a bright star, in-between Virgo and Libra but couldn't find it.  Telescope may have been too small.  Comet was nicely placed though, high enough in the SW sky to make it easy to train scope on.
• Located Jupiter, then imaged and videoed the gas giant.  Could only see two moons, one on either side.
• Located and then imaged M5 with Canon Rebel.  Many imaged were taken in hopes of being able to stack them.

• No shooting stars and a few satellites were seen.

Images to follow...

ASTRONOMY BY THE BAY

Location:  Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 10, 2017 2130-0117

Weather:  Mostly clear, some hazy and foggy periods giving away to mostly clear, breezy, cool, 9C.

Attendance:  Chris Curwin, David McCashion and 9 others.

Equipment:  Chris's 10" Dob with 13mm eyepiece, giving a magnification of 100x, Cellphone with Ioptron cellphone adapter, live streamed video of Moon on Chris's Astronomy By The Bay Facebook page.  Chris also has a twitter page for Astronomy By The Bay.  My Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on Vixen Alt/Az mount with 19mm and 12mm eyepieces.  Cellphone attached to 19mm eyepiece with cellphone adapter.  Canon Rebel Xsi with telescope attachment.

Objective:  Public outreach with fellow SJAC member Chris Curwin.

Report:

• Set up on beach around 2200 just as Moon appeared in the east, just over the bay.  Amazing sight!  Took a reddish, small flat shape that was no where near the normal size and shape of Moon.  Everyone commented on its amazing appearance and how fast it rose.

Image taken with DSLR camera attached to telescope.

• Jupiter was bright in the south south west throughout the evening.  It seemed like two or three of its moons were either behind the gas giant or in front of it.  For a while, two moons could be seen, for a while only one moon could be seen.

Jupiter with 2 moons showing.

• According to Heavens-above.com, the International Space Station (ISS) was suppose to appear in the wsw @ 2251 hrs and disappear in the ssw @ 2254 hrs.  At 2252 hrs, ISS came into view in the wsw, moving slowly, low in the sky.  Appearing not as bright as Jupiter, I tracked the station with rigel red circle finder on scope while Diane of the SJAC looked through the eyepiece.  She couldn't see much detail, other than it wasn't perfectly round.  Station went out of sight directly south, far before it was suppose to, possibly because of clouds on the horizon.  
• After this with my scope with 19mm eyepiece, searched the area of Bootes where Comet Johnson was suppose to be.  After an extensive search of the area, could not confirm a sighting.  This could have been due to brightness of Moons which was leaving deep shadows on the ground.
• Around 2300 hrs Chris ran a cellphone video-cast via his Facebook live feed.  Lots of people commented online.  Chris asked me to give a Comet Johnson update.  We then talked about the Moon.
• Objects observed with members of public:  ISS flyover, Albireo in the East, Moon in the East, Saturn in South East, Jupiter in the South west and managed to split Polaris the North Star.  Talked about, double stars, constellations the Milky-way and satellites.

Image taken with cellphone camera.

• No shooting Stars were seen and many satellites were seen.

MOON NEAR JUPITER

Location:  Front Deck, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 3, 2017 2230-2430hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear to partly cloudy, breezy, a cool 5C, lots of dew, no bugs.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80ED/APO on Vixen Alt/Az mount, 19mm eyepiece, camera adapter.  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm lens, and tripod.  Images processed with ArcsoftMediaImpressions.

Attendance:  David McCashion.

Objective:  To view and image a close pairing of the Moon and Jupiter, and to view a double shadow transit of Jupiter.

Report:

• Moon was waxing gibbous, very bright and about two degree above Jupiter.  Nice detail could be seen along terminator with one very well defined crater that stood out in the eyepiece.
• While Imaging Moon, noticed that Jupiter was close enough to be in the same field of view!
• Only one of Jupiter's Moons could be seen, very close to the gas giant.  Looked very closely across face of Jupiter, but could not locate a shadow that was suppose to be on the Planet from one of its Moons.  Io and Ganymede were suppose to be casting shadows from 2131-2421hrs according to SJAC What's Up calander.

SUNSPOT GROUP 2661

Location:  Front Porch, Little Lepreau, New Brunswick, Canada

Date Time: June 2nd, 2017 1330- 1515 hrs

Weather:  Mostly Sunny with lots of Thunderheads on the northern and southern horizons, windy and a cool 17 C.  Ed O'Reilly reported fog out over the Bay of Fundy and warned of possible thunder showers.

Attendance:  Becky L, and David McCashion in Little Lepreau and Ed O'Reilly reporting from West Saint John, NB

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO with 19mm eyepiece, solar filter, cellphone adapter, Galaxy s5 cellphone camera, arcsoftmediaimpressions processing software.

Objective:  To view and image the Sun on a relatively rare clear day.  Almost two straight weeks of cloudy, rainy weather.

Report:

• Found Sunspot Group 2661 very easily in the upper right section of the Sun, in the eyepiece field of view.  It is a big area of disturbance on the Sun and was reported to be a threat for cme activity by spaceweather.com.  It looked much clearer in the eyepiece than in image, with lighter colored markings around the darker sunspots.  Sun was much higher in sky than at other times of the year.  Very noticeably so...almost straight up.

COMET C/2015 V2 JOHNSON

Location:  Front Deck, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  May 24, 2017 2215-2400hrs.

Weather:  Cool, no wind, mostly clear, 7C, lots of dew, some bugs.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO with 19 mm eyepiece, camera adapter, Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55 mm and 75-300 mm lenses.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly in Saint John and David McCashion in Little Lepreau.

Objective:  To view and image Comet Johnson which is suppose to be in Bootes.

Report:

• Set up telescope around 2215 hrs, before it was completely dark.  Viewed Jupiter, which was high in southern sky, above Corvus.  Cloud bands showed up clearly and it seemed like the atmosphere was very steady, for a change.  Jupiter did not swim in the eyepiece.

Jupiter showing clouds.

Jupiter and four of its Moons.

• Waited till after 2230 hrs to look for Comet, so that the sky would completely darken.  Searched the area of sky between Izar and Delta Bootes for Comet with scope and 19 mm eyepiece.  Didn't take long to find it.  A fuzzy patch that wasn't completely circular which hints that this comet has a tail.  Comet also appeared to be dimmer than it was a few nights ago, when I last observed it.  Ed O'Reilly from Saint John, via Twitter, said he found it also, in his 8" Dob, and he thought it was fainter also.  His show, "The Sky Above" is on today at 3 pm on 107.3 FM community radio.

• One shooting star was observed through the corner of my eye, just north of due east at approx 2330 hrs.  Appeared reddish.  Ed also seen a shooting star that appeared reddish.  No satellites were seen.

ASTRONOMY BY THE BAY

Location:  Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  May 20, 2017 2130-2343 hrs

Weather:  Windy, mostly clear to clear, 9C, threat of frost over night, no bugs.

Equipment:  Chris's 10" Dob with 13 mm eyepiece, my 80 ED/APO with 19 mm eyepiece and camera attachments.  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55 mm lens.

Attendance:  Chris Curwin, Carla McCashion, David McCashion, and approx 7 others from the public.

Objective:  To observe with Chis down at the public beach so that passerby's and others can join in observing the night sky.

Report:

• Took a long time for it to darken enough to see most of the stars.  Didn't get truly dark till 2230 hrs.
• Chris showed many from the public Jupiter and four of its Moons.

• Once it got dark enough Chris showed members of the public M13 and M57.  He also discussed the nature of the Massive Globular Cluster and Planetary Nebula which resembles a ghostly smoke ring.  A truly remarkable sight in a good telescope.
• Shortly after this, I found Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson in eyepiece of my telescope.  Chris came and viewed it also, and we both agreed that we could see a faint tail.  Comet was fairly easy to find, above and to the right of Delta Bootes.  Brightish towards the center, medium sized with a little green showing.  Great telescope Comet that hopefully will brighten as it gets closer to Earth.  Closest approach is June 4.

• Found M4 easily, next to Antares.  Its rising in the SE with Antares and Saturn.  M4 was faintish but very seeable in this small scope.  Saturn was very low in the SE and didnt appear till after 2315hrs.  Could just barely make out the rings in the eyepiece.

• I seen one shooting star.  We searched for an International Space Station pass-over(tracked by Chris with his cellphone app) at 2201 hrs but none of us could see it.  We all agreed that there might have been too much light out to see it.
• There were many satellites observed, including one spectacular multiple Iridium flaring one that passed through the northern sky from west to east.  As one observer named Matt said,  "It looked like a flaming torch."  It would brighten dramatically, then fade, then brighten dramatically again, over and over.  Incredible sight!

Note:

• A special thanks to Chris Curwin for inviting the public to come share the night sky with his impressive selection of telescopes.  He does this frequently from Saints Rest Beach and even allows the public to image things, with their cellphone cameras, like the Moon through his telescope with special adapters and also just by hand held method.  He also is very knowledgeable about the night sky and its many wonders.  Thanks again Chris!  
• Here is a link to his Facebook Page Astronomy By The Bay where he will let you know when he is going to be set up down at the beach.

OBSERVING REPORT FOR MAY 18, 2017

Location:  Front Porch Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  May 18, 2017 2200-2420hrs

Weather:  Breezy to slight breeze to no wind, some clouds to mostly cloudy, fog, humid, 10C.  Flashing from the north indicated possible lightening in that direction.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  8" Meade LX200 telescope with 13, and 32mm eyepieces.  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.

Objective:  To observe a double shadow transit of Jupiter which was due to occur between 2445-0120hrs.  Also to view and image Comet Johnson which was due to be near a bright star in Bootes.

Report:

• Was close to 2230hrs before sky got completely dark.  Shortly after this a shooting star swarm was seen, in the East, high above.  Some were faint, others were of moderate brightness.
• Easily found Comet Johnson in 32mm eyepiece.  It was diffuse, brighter towards the center, had a thick, faint tail and was slightly greenish.  Was also very big.  Comet was much fainter than last time.  Took a much longer exposure this time to get the Comet to show up.

• Set telescope up around 1800hrs to give it a chance to acclimatize, so that a better view of Jupiter could be had to see the shadows cast on its surface during the double shadow transit.  Viewed the gas giant intently with high magnification given with 13.8mm eyepiece and at lower magnification.  Storm clouds could easily be seen along with 3 of its Moons.  One of its Moons was right along the planets limbs.  After watching carefully for some time, could not see any hint of the shadows.  Even though, these are the two smallest of the observable moons, I must conclude that these shadow transits are difficult to observe.

Note:  I want to thank Ed O'Reilly for frequently mentioning my blog on his Thursday afternoon at 3pm radio show The Sky Above, with Edward O'Reilly  His show is played again on Sundays at Noon and can be found at Local University Radio, 107.3FM.  He often talks about astronomy related topics along with his signiture topic the weather.  Great show!  I try to tune in every week!

OBSERVING REPORT FOR APRIL 29, 2017

Location:  Front Porch and side yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  April 29, 2017 2100-2330

Weather:  Mostly clear with some passing clouds, very windy increasing as evening went on, 7C.  Intermittent ground fog and haze throughout evening. Poor seeing conditions and no bugs.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80mm ED/APO with 12mm eyepiece on a Vixen Alt/Az mount.  Galaxy Neo S5 cellphone with cellphone adapter.  Canon Rebel with 75-300mm lens on tripod.

Attendance:  Rosana B, Emma B and David McCashion.

Objective:  To show our guests some night sky celestial objects through telescope.

Report:

• Before dark, just after 2100hrs, set up telescope and showed Rosana and Emma the crescent Moon, in the west and bright Jupiter in the SE.  Both were amazed at the craters on the Moon and neither had seen Jupiter's four Moons before.  Imaged both Moon and Jupiter with Cellphone

• Didn't get dark enough to look for Comet Johnson until after 2200hrs.  Found the faint comet with telescope exactly where heavens-above.com sky chart said it would be, above Eta Herculis.  It was faint, but see-able with brighter central region and a very long tail.  This is the first tail I've seen on a comet in a long time. Imaged Comet with Canon Rebel with 75-300mm lens from side yard.

Sky chart from Heavens-above.com

• At 2238 hrs a very bright Iridium flare was seen going through Hercules from North to South.  Was twice as bright as Jupiter.
• Wind picked up shortly after 2230hrs.  After wind picked up, wasn't able to see the Comet again in telescope eyepiece.  Possibly due to atmospheric disturbance or high thin clouds.
• Viewed and imaged M13 to compare with Comet for an attempt to measure its brightness.  M13 was at least five times brighter.

• Seen many satellites and one faint shooting star, in the east, from south east to the north.

TWO COMET NIGHT

Location:  Front Porch, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  April 24, 2017 2145-2320hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear to clear, 0C, no wind and no Moon.  Very dark skies.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on a Vixen Alt/Az mount with 19mm eyepiece, 20x80 Binoculars on Tripod, and Canon Rebel Xsi with 75-300mm lens mounted on tripod.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To view and image two Comets (C/2015 V2 Johnson and 41P T-K-G) which were in or near Hercules, in the North Eastern sky after dark.

Report:

• Went out to search for Comets as soon as it got dark (well after 2100hrs), but a hazy, partly see-through cloud hung over the NE sky.  This threatened the chance for capturing the faint Comets.
• After 2200 hours, the clouds in that area of sky dissipated, allowing for scan of NE sky.
• Searched for Comet Johnson, with binoculars which was supposed to be between two bright stars above Keystone of Hercules.  Could not locate comet with binoculars.
• Scanned the Hercules for the Great Cluster (M13) and found it with binoculars.  Very bright fuzzy patch that makes it easy to see why Charles Messier mistakes it for a Comet.  That's exactly what it looks like in binoculars or a small scope.  A bright fuzzy patch...but of course, this fuzzy patch does not move across the sky, it moves with the stars.
• Scanned the area, with binoculars to the lower right about 7 degrees of Dracos head for Comet 41P but could not see it.
• With a dark sky and no clouds, decided to image area of sky where Comets were suppose to be.  Used the very bright Jupiter (half way up in the sky in the SE) as a focusing target for camera.  Jupiter had an odd arrangement of its Moons at this time, with all four on one side...fairly close to one another.

Odd arrangement of Jupiter's Moons

• After imaging, set up small telescope with 19mm eyepiece.  Found Comet Johnson easily, right were sky charts said it was.  Bright fuzzy patch that seemed to be bigger on one side.  Comet has a bright nucleus.  Viewed M13, nearby also to compare brightness.  Comet Johnson was about 1/3 as bright as M13.  Found Comet 41P right was it was suppose to be also.  Much fainter than Comet Johnson, almost unseeable in small scope.
• This was my first time observing two comets in one night!
• No shooting stars and a few satellites were seen.

NEAF 2017 (April 9)

Location:  Rockland Community College, Suffern, NY, USA

Date Time:  April 9, 2017 1130-1710hrs

Weather:  Sunny, warm, slight breeze, 22C.  First leaves have started on bushes and some trees.

From the parking lot after the Conference.  First buds of the spring!

Attendance:  David McCashion and hundreds of attendees.

Report:

•  Spent more time today checking out more of the booths.  Talked to Kelly Beatty from Sky and Telescope Magazine.  He used a globe of the Moon to point out where there is a very deep impact creator on the southern half of the Moon on the far side.  Its massive and very deep.
• Talked to a gentleman from another booth who said he was working with Hubble Space Telescope and a Telescope in Chile to image a 26 magnitude asteroid which was going to eclipse a 15 magnitude star.  This asteroid is the target object of a New Horizons spacecraft flyby.  By studying the asteroid eclipsing the star image, experts hope to more accurately determine it's size.
• Here are some more images from the Field House where booths of all sorts, astronomy related were set up.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After the Field House, went outside were there were multiple telescopes set up for solar observing and at least one was set up to view a daytime, crescent Venus.  Though someones, Coronado 90 Solar Max with 25mm eyepiece, viewed two filaments, two different solar activity areas across the face, and one bright prominence..  In someone's, 80 APO with unknown eyepiece, viewed a very thin crescent daytime Venus.  Looked at area of sky where telescope was pointed, but could not see it with unaided eye.  Talked to someone else who had scope set up observing the Sun all day, and he said he had different  people at the eyepiece all day, but didn't get a count.

• A huge topic of conversation during the talks was the upcoming solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.  According to Professional TV Meteorologist and astronomy enthusiast, Joe Rao, who also gave a talk in the Theater, the best place in the US to see the Eclipse, weather-wise, was Mandras, Oregon.  He also pointed out another, very interesting fact that Carbondale, Ill is going to be host to two total solar eclipses within 8 years.  He said that any one place on Earth normally experiences a total solar eclipse once every 375 years.  Carbondale, Ill is on the crossroads of two total solar eclipse paths and will experience the phenomenon in 2017 and in the year 2024.  Below is an image of Joe Rao and the huge mural of the 2017 eclipse path across the US all of which were located in the hall adjoining the field house where all the booths were set up to the Theater.  Note the times of the start of the total solar eclipse for that particular area and the time zone.  Also note the duration of the eclipse for that area.  The duration of the eclipse is longer the closer you are to the center of its path.

• Mr Rao also talked about an eclipse in 2016 when he noticed that the eclipse was going to cross the flight path of an airplane.  He contacted the airline and it decided to delay the flight by a half hour, so that the plane could enter the shadow of the Moon.  Mr. Rao was on-board for the flight, and a News crew filmed the whole thing and the episode has been nominated for an Emmy!  Could not find the news report, but here is a youtube video from one of the other passengers of the flight.
• Caleb Weiss, ULA, Commercial Crew Program Manager gave a talk on the current state of Rocketry in terms of sending humans into space from the USA.  Currently all our Astronauts are flying out of Kazakhstan.  Mr. Weiss says that there is currently a rocket system that is almost ready to go and that they have four astronauts already picked for the first flight.  It will fly out of Cape Canaveral, FL in 2018, if all goes well.