OBSERVING REPORT FOR JULY 2nd 2015

Location:  West Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 2nd, 2015 2230hrs to 2300hrs.

Weather:  Slight breeze, partly cloudy to very cloudy, 14C not much dew and not many bugs.

Attendance:  Ed O and Myself.

Equipment:  Eds' 15x70 binoculars and tripod mounted digital camera.  My Canon Rebel DSLR with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses and tripod.

Objective:  To view and image the Venus/Jupiter conjunction.  They are now separating after their closest encounter on June 30.

Report: 
The conjunction was clear and bright enough to stand out and be seen as I was driving to Eds house around 2225hrs.  From 2230hrs to 2300hrs Ed and I moved around to continue observing as it was getting low and into trees and houses.  The Moons of Jupiter were hard to see on this evening.

First thing done was to measure the separation between the two planets.  This was done with a finger held out at arms distance.  Ed thought it was 70% the width of his finger and I figured it to be 80% the width of mine(holding the finger up to the conjunction and measuring how much of the finger was between the two planets).  So in two nights, they have moved about 0.5 Degrees apart.  For comparison, later on, we determined that the Full Moon was about a half a finger width!

Not many clouds were in the sky at 2230hrs, especially in the west.  By 2300hrs the sky was mostly covered in clouds.

Mizar, the naked eye double star in Ursa Major was imaged, with most of the big constellation covered in clouds.

A 'Full Buck' Moon was shining brightly, until clouds started moving in around 2300hrs.  At that point, it still could be seen through the thin clouds, but most other stars were washed out.

No shooting stars or satellites were seen.

Images:

Mizar and Alcor imaged with Canon Rebel Xsi and 300mm lens.

VENUS JUPITER CONJUNCTION!

Location:  West Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 30, 2015 2115hrs-2345hrs.

Weather:  Some clouds, many con-trails to mostly cloudy.  Cool 13C, lots of dew, lots of mosquitoes and spiders.  Light to no breeze.

Attendance:  Ed O, a neighbor named Bob, two passerby's and myself.

Equipment:  Eds' 15x70 binos and 8" Dobsonian.  My 80 ED/APO on a vixen alt az mount with 6mm, 12mm and 32mm eyepieces.  Canon Rebel DSLR with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.

Objective:  To view and image the Venus Jupiter conjunction that was suppose to occur on this date.  They were reportedly going to get within .3 of a degree apart.

Highlights:  Were very lucky to have clear skies for this evenings conjunction.  It was suppose to be foggy, with a bank of clouds very close to Saint John, but as luck would have it, it remained clear enough for some observing and imaging.  Only about an hour, though, of the conjunction, before a cloud bank rolled in from the west, shortly before the two planets went below a neighbors house.

Venus was a very bright Crescent Moon shape in the small telescope.  Jupiter was easily in the same field of view even at the highest magnification with the 6 mm eyepiece.  Three of Jupiter's moons could be seen and its Storm cloud bands seemed to fade into and out of view.  Atmospheric disturbance perhaps?

Mizar and Alcor, the naked eye double star in Ursa Major was viewed in the small telescope.  There were clearly three stars in the field of view, although it is said that this is a quadruple star system.  Very nice sight in telescope!

Saturn and its rings were very nice and bright, even with the nearly full moon nearby.  Titan could also be seen.

Zubeneschamali, in Libra was viewed by naked eye and I thought it looked kind of green.

Zubenelgenubi, also in Libra looked white to me and it went behind a big tree before the scope could be trained on it.  It is a famous double star system.

Antares was simply amazing in Eds' binoculars.  It literally sparkled like it was on fire, brilliantly reddish orange.  It didn't sparkle near as much in the telescope for some reason.

The Moon was very bright and rose above the house by 2300 hrs.  Tycho and Mare Crism showed up very well, as well as some craters along the terminator.

We located Albireo in Cygnus, then trained Eds big scope on it.  It showed up very nicely as a double star.  The star on the right whitish blue, the star on the left whitish red.

No shooting stars were seen, but one iridium flare showed up much brighter than Venus for about 2 seconds then faded, then disappeared behind some clouds.

Venus and Jupiter at around 2200 hrs.  About 1/3 degree separation is about the same width of the Moon.

With big camera and 300mm lens.  You can see three of Jupiters Moons if you look closely.

With cellphone camera held up to 12 mm eyepiece.  Venus in Crescent Moon phase, three of Jupiter's Moons visible.

This taken just before a cloud bank moved in and ended the Conjunction show.

Ed checking out a nearly full Moon around 2300hrs.

Nearly Full Moon was very bright after 2300hrs.

These two Moon images taken with cellphone camera.  Mare Crism and Tyco showed up very nice in small telescope and Eds binoculars.

OBSERVING REPORT FOR JUNE 19, 2015

Location:  Front yard at Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 19, 2015 2115-2230hrs

Weather:  Clear, slight breeze, 9C, and lots of Mosquitoes.

Attendance:  Jessica K, a Neighbor, and Myself.

Equipment: Meade 8" LX 200 with focal reducer, 19mm and 9mm eyepieces, Samsung Nexus 4 cellphone camera with Ioptron cellphone adapter, Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses

Objective:  To view and image Crescent Moon/Venus/Jupiter Conjunction which is suppose to peak on June 30.

Report:  This short observing session was all about the conjunction.  The flies were bad, but other than that the conditions were ideal for observing.

Had the scope set up by 2130, by then it was still light out.  Guessed where Regulus was(knowing it was above Jupiter, in the West) then aligned the scope in that direction.  Slewed the scope to Jupiter, then corrected the scope to take advantage of its tracking capabilities.

Took daylight images of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon.  It was hard to tease out detail on Jupiter, because it was too bright out, but three of its moons were visible.

Venus was in its 'Quarter Moon' phase, but closes-up images did not turn out well.

The focal reducer may also have negatively affected close-up images of Jupiter and Venus.  However, on the Moon, it allowed the whole disk to fit into the cellphone view screen.  This allowed for some nice video and images that showed Earth shine.

Jessica came out and viewed the Moon on the view screen of the cellphone.  She asked, "How did the craters get there?"  She also commented on how many craters there are.  I explained that the craters come from asteroid impacts.

A neighbor, who happened to be driving by stopped in and looked over my setup.  He commented on his setup and was amazed at all the electronics that I had attached to the telescope.  He also viewed a video of the crescent Moon.

One satellite and no shooting stars were seen.

Jupiter and two of its moons.

Three of Jupiter's Moons can be seen if you zoom in.

NAMING EXOPLANETS

Recently, as part of a committee of local astronomy enthusiasts, I was involved with coming up with a proposed name for an Exoplanet.  This committee is made up of members of the Saint John Astronomy Club, including Stephen T, June M, Phil, Ed O'Reilly and myself.

This committee, in conjunction with a program put on by the International Astronomical Union called naming exoplanets, has come up with a name for one Exoplanet, found orbiting the star Errai.  The name that we came up with is WALCAMYA.  Now this name will be placed with others and the public will have the final vote.

Walcamya is taken from the names of Bruce Cambell, Gordon Walker and Sephenson Yang, honoring their efforts in pioneering the science of finding exoplanets.

Walcamyas' Sun, Errai is an easy to find and see star that is circum-polar, which means that is always in the sky, from here in New Brunswick.

Anyone can vote on the names for of certain exoplanets.  The vote is being held from June to July 2015.  If interested go to this link http://www.nameexoworlds.org/#signup  They will pick the names in August 2015!

Here is your chance to be part of something truly historical...naming an exoplanet!

Image of Errai that I took June 17, 2015 while looking for Comet Lovejoy.

OBSERVING REPORT FOR JUNE 17, 2015

Location:  Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 17, 2015 2130-0130hrs

Weather:  @ 2200hrs-Mostly clear, kind of hazy, no wind and 12C.
                  @ 0130hrs-Mostly cloudy, clouds moving in slowly from the North, hazy, no wind 5C.

Equipment:  Meade 8" LX 200 Telescope with 19mm and 9mm eyepieces.  Eds' 15x70 binoculars.  Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR camera with 18-55mm lens, and a Samsung Nexus 4 cellphone camera with Ioptron cellphone adapter.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly and Myself.

Objectives:  To locate and image Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, M4, Gamma Cepheus and Comet Lovejoy.  To do a Galaxy search in and around the Virgo Cluster.

Report Highlights: This night was one day past new moon, so when it wasn't cloudy it was very nice seeing.  The first time I have ever seen the Little Dipper.

Viewed and imaged Venus and Jupiter well before dark.  Only three moons of Jupiter were visible.  Viewed and imaged Saturn shortly after dark with the cellphone.

Aligned scope on Denebola in Leo.  Searched the Virgo Cluster, the area halfway in between Denebola and Vindemiatrix.  One very bright Galaxy showed up as a bright fuzzy patch, with a lesser fuzzy patch close by. Another pair of galaxies were also observed.  Ed observed this as well.  Did a scan around this area and not much else stood out.

At this point, Antares came out from behind the trees.  The goto was used to slew to M4, but it wasn't in the field of view.  After a long search, the faintish globular cluster popped into view of the 19mm eyepiece.  Ed commented how there seemed to be a line of stars through it.  I noted how it the globular seemed to be looser than most gobs and is much fainter than M13.  Images were taken with DSLR.

Ed and I both did a search for Comet Lovejoy which was near the Little Dipper.  We could not confirm a sighting.

Located and viewed M13, which was straight overhead at 0130hrs.  It was huge and bright with many dozens of stars visible.  No images were taken as the clouds slowly cover it, thus ending the observing session.  By this time, 0130hrs, most of the sky was covered by cloud.

Two Satelites were seen and Ed thought he seen one shooting star.

Images:

Jupiter and two of its Moons.

Jupiter and three of its Moons.

Venus

M4

M4

Saturn

Saturn

OBSERVING REPORT FOR 27 MAY, 2015

Location:  Side-yard of house at Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  May 27, 2015 0330-0430 hrs AST.

Weather:  No wind, mostly clear, some fog and thin high level clouds, lots of moisture, 5C.

Equipment:  Meade 8" LX 200, Canon Xsi DSLR and Eds' 15x70 binoculars.

Attendance:  Ed O, and Myself.

Objective:  To view and image Comet Lovejoy, which was near Polaris.

Report:  Ed found Lovejoy right away with his binos.  It was right next to Polaris, about 2 degrees away. Lovejoy was in the 2 o'clock position, within the field of view of Polaris.  Ed also found M13, which was high, almost straight overhead, slightly to West.  He thought that Lovejoy and M13 were about the same size with Lovejoy being dimmer by at least two magnitudes.

Scope was aligned on Polaris and when viewed through big scope with 32 mm eyepiece a second star appeared.  Polaris is a triple star system and we managed to image at least two of the three stars.  The star Polaris Ab is too faint and too close to Polaris to split with a backyard telescope.  Hubble found it and, I think is the only scope that can see it.

Found Lovejoy with big scope.  Found it to be a rather big, faint grayish fuzzball, that was about half the size of M31 and much dimmer.  Imaged Lovejoy with DSLR attached to big scope at prime focus.

First light started at 0400 hrs and began to wash out the Comet.  By 0430hrs there was lots of daylight.

Many satellites were seen, including one iridium flare that went through the handle of the Big Dipper.  One shooting star was seen going between Polaris and the Big Dipper.  It was kind of faint and moved very fast.

Comet Lovejoy processed.

Comet Lovejoy unprocessed.

Polaris A and Polaris B

Observing Report for May 13, 2015

Location:  Little Lepreau and McPherson Beach NB, Canada

Date Time:  May 13, 2015 2100hrs-2230hrs @ McPherson Beach to see western Horizon.  2230-0400hrs @ side-yard in Little Lepreau.

Weather:  Clear, no wind, 7C @ 2100hrs.  Clear, slight breeze, lots of frost and dew -3C @ 0400hrs.

Attendance:  Ed O and Myself.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.  Meade 8" LX 200 telescope with 19mm eyepiece.  Nexus 4 cellphone camera with Ioptron cellphone adapter.  Ed's 15x70 binos.

Objective:  To view and image some galaxies in Virgo.

Highlights:  Jupiter-Venus and Mercury form a straight line in the West at Sundown.

Viewed M13 in binos.

Viewed and imaged Comet Lovejoy next to Polaris.

With big scope, we viewed some galaxies around five degrees to the left of Denebola, in Virgo.  Scanned around this area with 19mm eyepiece and seen many roundish to oval shaped smudges that were obviously galaxies. Could not see much detail in the smudges and it was hard to determine which Messier object was which.

Viewed and imaged Saturn in the SE with binos and telescope.  Two of its Moons could be seen.  Imaged Saturn with DSLR and with cellphone phone connected to the telescope.

Ed spotted the Summer Triangle, rising in the east at around 0200hrs.

Many shooting stars and satellites were seen.

Comet Lovejoy

Comet Lovejoy

Saturn