GLOBULAR CLUSTERS IN SOUTHERN SKY (Updated)

Location:  Front yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 7, 2019 2330-0220hrs

Weather:  Clear, No wind, very cool 11C @ 2330hrs and 8C at 0200hrs.  Only a few bugs.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on motorized mount, 19mm eyepiece.  Canon Rebel T3 with 18-55mm lens and attached to telescope at prime focus.  Images stacked with Deepsky Stacker and processed on Photoshop.

Objective:  To view and image the Southwestern sky, Jupiter and Saturn and as many messier objects in that area as possible.

Report:

• Set up late, when Jupiter moved far enough to the west to see it past the tree in my front yard.  Aligned scope on Arcturus, Alkaid(Ursa Major) and Jupiter.
• Viewed M5.  Bright globular near a bright star..
• Viewed and imaged Jupiter.

• Imaged faint, small globulars M19 and M9.  M9 sits very close to a fairly bright star.

• Imaged nebulae M8, M20 & M21.  Very bright nebulae showing color in the eyepiece...blues and greens.
• Imaged the huge, bright globular M4, next to the brightest star in Scorpius, Antares.

Ten images stacked, 10 second, 6400 ISO, camera attached to telescope at prime focus.

•  Viewed M22.  A huge, bright globular.  Also viewed M28, a very small, faint globular.
• Viewed and imaged Saturn.

• No shooting stars or satellites were seen.

YOUNG MOON

Location:  Front yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 4, 2019  2130-2430

Weather:  High hazy, thin clouds early on, giving way to mostly clear, dark skies.  Light breeze to no wind, 72% humidity, and 16C at Sundown, 12C at 2430hrs.  Many mosquitoes all throughout.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  Meade LX200 with 15mm eyepiece.  Canon Rebel T3 with 75-300mm lens and attached to telescope at prime focus.  Images processed with Photoshop.

Objective:  To view and image a conjunction of Mars-Mercury-Moon which was due to happen around sunset.  Also, to view and image Io's shadow, which was supposed to cross the face of Jupiter from approximately 2330hrs-0230hrs.

Report:

• Went out about a half hour before dark to see the conjunction, but hazy clouds covered most of the sky, including the western sky.  Shortly later the clouds broke up revealing the very thin, young moon.  Could not confirm a sighting of the two planets.  They were lower in the sky than the Moon and may have been below the tree line.

• Once Jupiter moved into the south-western part of the sky, around 2330hrs, went back out and viewed and imaged it.  Three of it moons were visible with Io in the midst of a transit.  Thought I could see a shadow on the lower right face of Jupiter, but it didnt show up in the 15mm eyepiece, but just slightly in the image. Belts showed up nicely.

•  Jupiter was just East, and higher up than Antares.  M4 is located 2 degrees to the west of Antares, so I used the telescope to locate and view it.  A faint globular cluster, with more stars to one side.
• Many satellites were seen going in all directions and very many planes were flying East and West.  No shooting stars were seen.