A Comet, A Messier, & Two Planets Rising

 Location:  Prince of Wales, NB, Canada

Date Time:  March 21, 2021 0430-0652hrs

Weather:  It was a warm and hazy -3C, 67% humidity, mostly clear until about 6am.  That's when it went from no wind, to a slight breeze, from the north.  It turned very chilly after that.  Temps leaving Saint John were 5 degrees warmer.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  Canon Rebel T3 attached to an 80 ED/APO telescope at prime focus and with an 18-55mm lens.  Images processed on Photoshop.

Objective:  To image two comets in the morning sky, and anything else that seemed interesting.  The comets were C/2020 R4 Atlas, in Aquila and 10P/Tempel 2 in Aquarius.

Report:

• As soon as I arrived I attempted to image the Summer Triangle, rising in the East, but the images didn't turn out well because they were out of focus.  The stars were too faint to zoom in on, to obtain adequate focus.
• Aligned scope on Regulus, which was low in the west at approx 0500hrs.  According to Richard Hinckley Allen, in his Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning, Regulus is a triple star system of 1.7, 8.5 and 13 mag stars, is flushed white and ultramarine.(Will at image at later date)
  
• Searched for and found C/2020 R4 Atlas in Aquila, halfway between Altair and Saturn.  It's faint, approximately 10 mag.

ISO 3200, 50s, not cropped.

•  Searched for Comet 10P/Tempel 2, which was reported in Aquarius.  Aquarius was just rising during morning first light, but the comet did not rise above the horizon before the sky became too lit.  While in Aquarius, searching for the comet, I found  and imaged the bright globular cluster M2, which was in the trees, low along the horizon.  The sky was lighting up fast by this time...approximately 607am.

ISO 3200, 30s, not cropped.

•  Jupiter & Saturn didn't start rising over the treeline until after 630am.  They remain low in the south eastern morning sky.

f/4.5, 8s, ISO 100, focal length 33mm, image cropped.

• Heard my first flock of Canada Geese of the year, around 615am, flying north along the coast.  Many other birds were heard chirping in the morning twilight, and some were even chirping and moving around before first light.  A sign of spring.
• At 643am, as I was taking down the setup, I heard, then seen a bright bolide slowly sailing from west to south east, halfway up in the southern sky.  Its sizzled as it burned itself out, flying straight at Saint John, from my vantage point.

• No satellites were seen, or any other shooting stars.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWO COMETS & A CONJUNCTION

Location:  Prince of Wales, NB, Canada

Date Time:  March 7, 2021 1800-2130hrs

Weather:  Clear, no wind, -5.7 C and 57% humidity..

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm lens and using small telescope at prime focus.  Images processed with Photoshop.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To image two faint comets in the western sky, just after dark and to view and image a close pairing of Mars and Pleiades.

Report:  

• Arrived at dark sky site at approx 6pm.  The sun was supposed to set at 618pm, which it did, but it didn't get dark enough to start imaging for a faint comet till 710pm!
• Comet C/2021 D1 Swan was reported to be low in the west at first dark, in the great square of Pegasus, about 5 degrees from Algenib, inside the square asterism.  Its last reported magnitude was 11.5, its distance from the Earth and Sun respectively are 1.677AU and 0.907AU, at observing time.
  

Single shot, 90 second, ISO 1600.  Not cropped.

•  Comet C/2021 A4 Neowise was reported to be in Taurus, below the bull-face asterism.  Its last reported magnitude was 12.4.  It was 0.846AU from Earth and 1.161AU from the Sun at observing time.  This comet was very faint, much fainter than Swan.  I could not see it in the viewfinder, but it did show up in 120 second exposure images, that were ruined by a tracking malfunction.  The comet didn't appear to have a brighter central region.  It appeared more as a whisp of cloud.

Single shot, uncropped, 30s, ISO 6400.

•  Mars and Pleiades were very close together.  Not close enough to get in the same field of view with the camera using the telescopes as a lens, though.

 

Single shot, uncropped, 15s, ISO 3200, f/3.5 and focal length 18mm.

Single shot, uncropped, camera using telescope as lens, 30s, ISO 1600.

• One bolide seen out of the corner of my eye, to the north while imaging at around 9pm.  This was the most satellites I've ever observed during an observing session.  Picked up many in images, as well.  This is the first time I have had an issue with satellites passing through images.
• Starlink launched more satellites today.  The train will be visible beginning at 428am tomorrow morning, according to heavens-above.com.  Another source for SpaceX Launches is at this link https://heavens-above.com/StarlinkLaunchPasses.aspx
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREE PLANETS REAPPEAR IN THE EASTERN MORNING SKY (Updated)

Location: Lower Westside Saint John, NB, Canada  

Date Time: February 27, 2021 0630-0640hrs, March 3, 2021 0630-0650hrs  & March 4th, 2021 0615-0640hrs

Weather: Feb 27-Mostly clear, reddish twilight on eastern horizon, -9C, and a slight breeze. 

March 3rd-Mostly cloudy, with one clear patch in along the eastern horizon that ended about where the Planets should have been, -10C with reported windchill of -18C, a gusty 30-40km wind from the north, 90% humidity.  

March 4th-Mostly clear, very windy, from the north, -7C, 62% humidity.

Equipment: 20x80 binos with camera on March 4th.

Objective: To view Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury, which were supposed to be low in the eastern dawn sky.  

Report for Feb 27: Jupiter was very low, about 2 degrees above the horizon, but was the biggest and brightest by far. It was naked eye visible, with averted vision, against the brightening reddish sky. Mercury was a little higher and to the south. Saturn was higher still and further south and was by far the faintest, even in binos. Mercury and Saturn were not visible to unaided eye. I imaged these planets on January 10th, just before Mercury passed in front of the Sun and Jupiter/Saturn went behind the Sun, from our view point. In other words, the 3 planets which disappeared from the evening sky just after January 10th, have now reappeared in the Morning sky! See my Jupiter-Mercury-Saturn post for Janurary 10th for images. No images were taken. No Satellites or shooting stars were seen.  

Report for March 3rd: Every morning since Feb 27 has been cloudy. Scanned the part of the eastern horizon that was clear with binos, but couldn't see any of the planets. The clouds must have been covering them. Beautiful reddish sky on the eastern horizon. Wind were so strong it blew my tripod over. Too windy for imaging, so no images. Supposed to be clear tomorrow...

Report for March 4th:  Finally, a clear, beautiful morning to capture an image and view the newly reappearing planets.  Jupiter is much higher than it was at the same time of day on Feb 27th.  It is much closer to Mercury, as well.  Saturn is very, very faint, and just barely showed up in binocular field of view and in the images.  Strong, steady winds, from the north made imaging next to impossible.  Of four images I was able to take, winds ruined three of them.  Bitter cold.

A waning gibbous Moon was high in the west.

focal length = 120mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/8th second.