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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GREAT CONJUNCTION 2020

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

Date Time:  December 23, 2020 1745-1805hrs

Weather:  Gusty 25km/hr winds from the north, -4.7C, humidity 69%, mostly clear except for considerable clouds around the western, northern and southern horizons.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm and 75-300 lenses.  Image processed for text on Photoshop.

Objective:  To view and image Jupiter and Saturn, two days after the historic conjunction on Dec 21, 2020, when they were 1/10th of a degree apart.  

Report:  This conjunction was an amazing sight in the evening twilight!

A long stretch of cloudiness(almost a week) prevented viewing and imaging this amazing conjunction on Dec 21.  This was when the conjunction was at its closest.

I would estimate that the planets were about one half of a degree apart at observing time. 

Shortly after this image was taken, clouds covered this area of the sky for several minutes.  When the planets reappeared, it was through increasing and decreasing cloudiness and haziness.

Also noteworthy during observing time was a close pairing of a young waxing gibbous Moon and Mars.  They were about 5 degrees apart.

Single shot, 3 second ISO 400, f/5.6.

GEMINIDS 2020

 Location:  Saint John West, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 14, 2020 0120-0153hrs

Weather:  Slight breeze, mostly clear through observing time, which was the only break in the clouds in days.  Cool, 2.3C, 99% humidity.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  None.

Objective:  To view as many Geminid meteors as possible, during a short break in the cloud cover.

Report:

The sky cleared from 0120 to 0153am.  It was mostly to completely cloudy before and after observing time.

I faced mostly North East, towards Ursa Major, and South East towards Leo.  Seen 20 Geminids.  All observed meteors were Geminids  There were no sparodics.  This included 1 bolide at 0125 hrs, which descended slowly down through the handle of big dipper, straight into uptown Saint John from my vantage point.  The bolide was easily twice as big and bright as Venus, and appeared to wobble and slow down as it dropped.

Most meteors were fast, short/medium period of about 1 mag brightness, brilliant white color.  Some had yellow ting.  A few were very short period, were very fast and fainter.

There was a meteor grouping around Ursa Major at around 0130 hrs, then another grouping to the south of Leo at around 0145 hrs.  Seen two Geminids around Orion, through the oncoming clouds.

MARS OPPOSITION 2020

Location:  Saint John West, NB, Canada

Date time:  October 14, 2020 2130-2300hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear, except for smoke from a nearby pulp and paper plant, that happened to be drifting our way.  It was moving from west to south east.  Air was cool and moist, mostly still no wind, 10C with a humidity of 85%.

Attendance:  Myself

Equipment:  8" Meade LX 200 with 25mm and 19mm, yellow and blue filters.  Canon Rebel xsi with 18-55mm lens.

Objective:  To view and image a very close, big from our perspective, Mars.  Mars was at opposition the day before, which only happens every two years.  This year, however, Mars is closer than normal to Earth and rarely gets as high in our sky.

Report:

• Mars was in Pisces and very high in the sky during observing.  Over 37 degrees above the horizon, at observing time, to over 50 degrees high, at it's highest, over-night!  It appeared 22 arc seconds across, compared to Jupiter's 38 arc seconds and Saturn's 16 arc seconds.  This is a huge view of Mars, comparatively speaking!
• In the eyepiece, Mars was huge!  It was showing a faint waving line across its disk.  The wavy line showed up in the blue filter a little more, with other features barely visible as darker colored blotches, randomly place across its disk.  The yellow filter hid the line and showed no features.  
•  I couldn't get that wavy line, or any features to show up in images.
• No shooting stars or Satellites were seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER 2020

 Location:  Petersville Hill on Hwy 7, NB, Canada

Date Time:  August 12, 2020 2244-0144hrs

Weather:  Mostly cloudy to partly cloudy to mostly clear with much haziness and some ground fog.  Surprisingly warm breeze at times stronger than others, towards the end of observing session, air was completely still.  No dew and a few bugs, 23C at Petersville Hill at 0144hrs and 14C in Saint John at 0215hrs.  Was foggy all the way to Petersville Hill, at 2230hrs, but fog was mostly gone all the way to SJ on the way back at 0200hrs.  Sea fog was still very thick in SJ at 0215hrs.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly, David McCashion.

Equipment:  Ed's binoculars, my camera with 18-55mm lens, reclining lawn chairs.

Objective:  To view and image as many Perseid Meteors as possible.  This shower was due to peak on the nights of  Aug 11 and 12.  Aug 11 was fogged out in SJ, so after checking the weather websites, we thought we had a better chance to head towards Fredericton to see if we could find clear skies.  We found clear skies at Petersville Hill.

Report:

• Passing clouds and haziness was a major factor for at least the first two hours of observing, but at all times there was at least a part of the sky that we could see stars.
• Ed and I both looked for Comet Neowise, which was supposed to be below Arcturus, but could not find the comet with the binoculars.  Maybe due to too much haziness.
  
• In all, over 3 hours, together we seen 76 meteors with 15 being sporadics.  That averaged about 20 Perseids/hr.  Most Perseids were medium speed, either faint or very faint, yellowish.  There were 4 Perseids that were very bright, with one bolide that flew low, in the direction of Saint John and appeared to break up.  Most all the Persieds left a smoke trail.
  

 

•  Many satellites were seen going in all directions, for the entire observing session.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREE COMETS NEAR ARCTURUS

 Location:  St. Martin's, NB, Canada

Date Time:  August 8, 2020 2130-2345hrs

Weather:  Party cloudy, hazy, no wind, no dew, many mosquitoes for first hour, 19c at 2130hrs, 15c at 2345hrs.

Attendance:  Myself.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ed/apo with Canon Rebel T3 attached at prime focus.  20x80 binoculars.  Images processed with Photoshop.

Objective:  To view and image as many comets as possible in the NW sky, as soon as it gets dark enough.  Also, to view and image a close pairing of a waning Gibbous Moon and Mars, and to look for any Perseid meteors which might fly over.  The Perseids peak on August 11 and the Earth has not entered it's debris field, so there is a chance to see the bright yellow, smoke trail making shooting stars.

Report:

• Set up, about 100 yards from the beach in St. Martin's, so the humidity from the water seemed high, but I didn't have a way to tell what the humidity level was exactly.  For most of the observing session most of the southern sky was covered by passing clouds.  It took a long time for the sky to darken enough to start looking for the faint comets, which were halfway up in the NW sky.

 

•  It took until about 1015pm for the sky to darken enough to look for the comets with binoculars.  Comet Neowise popped out easily in the field of view.  It has a bright central region, with a hint of a huge fanlike tail from the 10 o'clock position to the 12' o'clock position.  Greenish with varying brightness across its visible disk.  The other comets did not show up in the binoculars.
• Aligned scope on Arcturus and Alkaid.  Imaged M3, which was about halfway between Alkaid and the first comet I was going to image, Comet Neowise.  Comet Panstarrs T2 was very faint, and was located about halfway between Comet U6 and Neowise.  Panstarrs showed up better in the viewscreen of the camera than what could be drawn out by image processing.  Comet U6 was very near Muphrid, which was just out of the image field of view.  A very faint, grayish, irregular shaped blob without a bright central region.  All comet images were taken with the same camera settings to show a comparison.  They were 30 second and ISO of 6400, with the exception of the M3 image which was 30 seconds and ISO of 1600.
  

 

 

 

 

•  The comets were near Arcturus and Mophrid in Bootes.  According to Richard Hinkley Allen, in his Star Names Their Lore and Meaning, Arcturus, aka Alpha Bootes is 0.3 magnitude, and is golden yellow.  Hinkley dedicates many pages to Bootes and Arcturus.  Being one of the brightest stars in the sky, it has an amazingly rich history amongst many different cultures.  For western cultures, the kite-like asterism is thought of as "The Herdsman".  Arcturus is Latin, for 'guardian of the bear'.
  

•  Also, according to Richard Hinkley, Muphrid is 2.8 magnitude and pale yellow..  Derives from the Arabic word Al Mufrid al Ramih.  It means Solitary Star of the Lancer.
• After viewing and imaging the three comets, I made an attempt to image Comet 88P Howell, which was in Virgo.  But, by this time it was too low in the NW sky to image.
• Turned to Saturn and Jupiter which were just to the east of a nice bright milkyway, in the south.  Took portrait and landscape style images.
  

 

•  As I was finishing up, around 1130pm, noticed a very low, reddish, waning gibbous moon rising in the East,over the Bay of Fundy.  It was very close to a very bright Mars.

 

•  Many satellites were seen and some even ruined images.  One very bright Perseid was seen around 1030pm.  Long, bright, yellow streak that left a very long, long lasting smoke trail.  It flew just over Bootes, from the NE, straight down to the SW.  As I was searching for comets with binos, seen another smoke trail, but didn't see the Perseid.