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.