OBSERVING REPORT FOR JANUARY 30, 2021

Location:  Prince of Wales, NB, Canada

Date Time:  January 30, 2021 1900-2100hrs

Weather:  Bitter cold, -10C, 60% humidity, no wind, at times breezy, mostly clear, some haziness around the eastern horizon when the waning gibbous Moon appeared, around 1945hrs.  Weather patterns had Arctic air from Greenland coming straight south, over our area on this evening, and for the next day or so.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 attached to a Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO at prime focus.  Images processed with Photo Shop.

Attendance:  Myself

Objective:  To image three comets, in the magnitude 10/11 range, that were in the sky, before the very bright, 94% illuminated waning gibbous Moon was set to rise at 1945 hrs.

Report:

• Set up the telescope, around 1920 and aligned on Deneb, a Pegasus star and Mars.  Mars was high enough to make imaging difficult.  It was so cold, I had to stop several time to warm up, which made imaging all the comets before the waning gibbous Moon rose impossible.

ISO 1600, 30s.  Un-cropped, enhanced.

 

•  I searched for three comets and the first one was Comet 88P Howell, which was very low in the west.  The comet was reportedly magnitude 10, and I imaged that area of the sky, but the comet did not show up in 30 second exposure images.
• Imaged the area of sky, well below Mars, for Comet 141P Machholz.  Just above the treeline, to the south-west, the comet did show up, just barely in a single shot, 30s image.

ISO 1600, 30s.  Image cropped and enhanced.

•  Imaged the area of sky, to the north-east of Sirius.  By this time, the waning gibbous Moon had risen enough to greatly affect observing and imagines.  Good images of that area of the sky were attained, but the comet was not discernible.
• Then decided to image some nearby Messier objects, M46 and M47.  These deep sky objects showed up well, despite the glowing Moon nearby.

ISO 1600, 30s.  Un-cropped, enhanced.

ISO 1600, 30s.  Un-cropped, enhanced.

•  By 2030 hrs, the waning gibbous Moon had risen enough to turn mostly white, and some hazy clouds seem to stay around it.

ISO 100, 1/50s.  Cropped and enhanced.

•  Several satellites were seen, going in every direction, with one image picking one up.  No shooting stars were seen.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MERCURY-JUPITER-SATURN

Location:  Lower West-side Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  January 10, 2021 1730-1830hrs

Weather:  Breezy, from the north, -1.5C, mostly clear, and 71% humidity.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 300mm lens.  Images processed with Photo Shop.

Attendance: David McCashion

Objective:  To view and image a close pairing of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, just after sundown.

Report:  When Jupiter first appeared, after sundown, around 1740hrs, it was only approx 5 degrees above the horizon.  Mercury and Saturn never were never visible to me either through the camera view-screen or with the unaided eye.  

Only after processing images did I notice that the first image I took at 1750hrs captured all three planets, two of which were almost too low to capture.  Saturn went below the treeline about two minutes after taking this image.

Altogether, I took nine images and only captured all three planets in the first two.  The second image didn't turn out well due to windy conditions disturbing the camera.  The two images below are the same image, one with text to label the planets.  Image is cropped and enhanced to show the dimmer planets better.

ISO 100, 1.6 sec, focal length 250mm, f/5.6.