OBSERVING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 28, 2015

Location:  Front yard at Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time:  October 28, 2015 0600-0630hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear with some high, thin, hazy clouds, no wind and a very cool -4C.

Attendance:  David M.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi Camera on tripod with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.

Objective:  To view and image Mars Venus Jupiter Conjunction which was suppose to be in the East on this morning.

Highlights:

• Very cool out, lots of frost on everything.
• A very bright Moon that was one day past full washed out most stars, but Leo in the East, Ursa Major in the North East and Orion in the South West stood out nicely, but much fainter than normal.
• Sirius, the brightest star that can be seen from New Brunswick was observed in the South.
• Conjunction formed a tight group just below Leo.
• Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis) was spotted rising just before first light.  This is interesting because in between this star and Denebola (Beta Leo) is the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies...which is a Spring time target for Amateur Astronomers. 
• Towards the end of the observing session, a Lunar Corona formed around the Moon.
• No Shooting stars and no satellites were seen.

Images: 

Close-up of Jupiter(upper right), Venus (center right), Mars(very bottom left)

Lunar Corona formed at around 0620hrs.

MARS JUPITER HALF DEGREE APART

Location:  Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time:  October 17, 2015  0615-0645hrs

Weather:  Frost, no wind, clear to partly cloudy, and -2C.

Attendance:  David M.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses on tripod.

Objective:  To view and image the Mars and Jupiter which were reported to be a half degree apart on this morning.

Highlights:

• Very nice bright conjunction of Venus Mars and Jupiter.  Mars and Jupiter were about a half finger width apart in the sky, as measured by holding by arm outstretched.
• No Aurora activity.
• No shootings stars seen, but many satellites were seen.

Images:

MERCURY IN THE MORNING!

Location:  Upper driveway, near boat and then near shed, Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time:  October 9, 2015 0520-0725hrs AST

Weather:  Frost, -1C, no wind and some clouds.

Attendance:  Ed O and David M.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi and 18-55mm lens on Tripod.

Objective:  To view and image morning conjunction of Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury that was suppose to be in the Eastern sky before sun-up.

Highlights:

• Before first light, low in the East a Waning Crescent Moon was south of  Leo, amongst Venus, Mars  and Jupiter.
• Images of the Northern sky were taken to capture Aurora activity.  No Aurora activity captured during observing period.
• M31 observed naked eye in the North West also imaged.
• Big Dipper was standing on its handle in the North East.
• First light was just after 0630hrs.
• Mercury made its first appearance around 0650hrs.  Showed up as a non twinkling star, between some clouds and amongst trees and power lines.  Was not easy to see.
• I seen a slow moving, faint shooting star moving from the Orion(SE) direction through Leo(E).
• Eds' observations by naked eye:  M42, Perseus Double Cluster(particularly bright!), Pleiades M45, a Draconid Meteor, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Regulus, and a Crescent Moon with Earthshine.
• One shooting star observed by each of us separately, several satellites observed.

Images:

DAYTIME VENUS/MOON

Location:  Back deck Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time:  October 8, 2015 1335hrs AST

Weather:  Warm, sunny, light breeze to no breeze 13C.

Equipment: Canon Rebel Xsi with 75-300mm lens on tripod..

Images:

Unprocessed

Processed

MORNING CONJUNCTION

Location:  Driveway by the boat and front yard in Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time:  October 8, 2015 0500-0730hrs

Weather:  Very cool, frost, might have been first windchill of the fall, no wind, clear, according to intelicast.com 6C with windchill making it 4C at 0500hrs.  Cooled off considerably just before first light, around 0630hrs turned all the dew into ice(frost).

Attendance:  David M.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm lens on tripod and attached to telescope at prime focus.  Telescope 8" Meade LX 200 with 2" 30mm eyepiece and Telerad.

Objective:  To view and image morning conjuction of the Moon, Venus, Regulus, Mars and Jupiter.

Highlights:

• First thing that stood out was the very bright conjuction in the East that was completely above the horizon and rising at 0500hrs.  
• An interesting note:  As the background stars of Leo are moving to the west as days go by... Venus and Mars appear to be moving to the East.  Planets are truly wanderers amongst the stars, as seen from Earth.
• Jupiters bands faded in and out due to its low position in the sky.  Four of its Moons were nicely spaced apart with three on one side, and one on the other.  Jupiter was about nine degrees from Venus and about eleven degrees from the Moon.
• Mars moving away from Regulus.
• Aurora activity was reported around the world on Spaceweather.com  none was seen from here except for a faint glow.  Time elapse images did show a slight glow when image was processed.
• Venus looks like a Crescent Moon in eyepiece.  Venus approximately three degrees from our Moon.
• Windchill was a factor.  Telescope and camera attachments more difficult to work with.
• One shooting star and no satelites were observed.

Images:

Jupiter and four of its moons.

Venus in its crescent moon phase.

Aurora glow?  You be the judge.

Orion under fairly dark sky conditions.

OSERVING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 7, 2015

Location:  Front yard at Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time: Oct 7, 2015 1400-1500hrs and 2100-2210hrs

Weather:  Afternoon-Sunny, few clouds, windy 18C and lots of hornets
Evening-Clear, few thin clouds, no wind, 10C, no bugs.

Equipment:  Afternoon- Telescope 8" Meade LX 200, with telerad and Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55 mm and attached to scope at prime focus.

Evening- 20x80 binoculars on tripod, Sky & Telescopes Pocket Sky Atlas and Brent Watson's Finder Charts of The Messier Objects.

Attendance:  David M.

Highlights:  

• In the afternoon, set up scope and used it to view and image the Moon which was setting in the West.
• After dark around 2100 set up binoculars and located and viewed following deep sky objects.
• M8 Lagoon Nebula bright reds and blues.  Setting in the SW.
• M20 Some nebulosity.
• M22 bright globular cluster
• M28 faint globular
• M25 bright, spread out cluster.
• M11 bright cluster with nebulosity?  My first time viewing and finding.
• M31 Absolutely huge taking up most of field of view!  In my opinion, binoculars is best way to view this object.
• M45 Many, many stars in field of view.  Huge takes of most of field of view.
• Perseus Double Cluster, aka NGC 884 and NGC 869.  Huge in field of view.  Binoculars is a great way to view these side by side objects.
• M103 Bright cluster, a first time observing this object.
• While searching for M103, around Cassiopeia, it must be noted that there are many, many stars in in this region when scanning with binoculars.  Same can be said for area to the right of and above Sagittarius.
• No shooting Stars or Satellites were observed.

Image:

LUNAR ECLIPSE 2015

Location:  Irving Nature Park, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  September 27, 2015 1915-0130hrs  Setup at the park was from 2115-0030hrs.  Left park at 0045hrs.

Weather:  Very windy, strong gusts reportedly 30km/hr all night, 12C all evening, very cool, some clouds, hazy, lots of dew, no bugs.

Attendance:  Mike P, Ed O, Steven T, Adrian B, Curt N, June M, Matthew W, Allan H, David M and approximately 225 from the general public for a talk put on by Curt and observing with at least a dozen telescopes set up in the upper parking lot.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on a Vixen Alt Az Mount, 12mm eyepiece, Rigel Red circle finder.  8" Meade LX 200, 32mm eyepiece, Telerad and piggy back attachment for telescope.  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, tripod and an attachment to connect to both telescopes.

Objective:  To view and image my first known Lunar Eclipse and to share my astronomy knowledge and telescopes with the general public.

Highlights:

• Aligned big scope on Polaris.
• Viewed Saturn myself.  Was really low on the horizon around 2130hrs, didn't show up well.  None of its moons were visible.  Reddish, hazy and warbled around in eyepiece, but rings were visible.  Public were attending Curts talk at this time.
• Set big scope on Polaris to show public that this is a double star in a backyard telescope.  Pointed out to the approx. ten people who viewed it that Hubble has found a third star in this system.
• Kept small scope on the Moon all night, available to the public.  At least 30 people viewed different phases of the eclipse through my scope.
• By 2315hrs many stars began to pop out as the sky darkened, due to the eclipse.  M31 was visible with averted vision and at least once with direct sight.  Milky Way was not visible before the eclipse, appeared during the eclipse.
• Through the eyepiece of small scope and in a few images, during darkest period of eclipse, stars were visible next to the Full Eclipsed Moon.
• Through small scope during total eclipse phase, Moon appeared grayish.
• During total eclipse,  Moon had a red 'tinge' to it when viewed naked eye.
• Eclipse started on left side of Moon and finished on Right.  Eclipse stared at approx 2200hrs and lasted till 0130hrs.
• 0545 hrs wake up to fog!
• No shooting stars or satelites seen.  Many airplanes.

Images:

Canon Rebel with 18-55mm lens on tripod.

Canon Rebel with 75-300mm lens on tripod.

Canon Rebel with 75-300mm lens on tripod.

Canon Rebel with 18-55mm lens on tripod.

Canon Rebel attached to big telescope with adapter at prime focus.

Canon Rebel attached to big telescope with adapter at prime focus.

Canon Rebel attached to big telescope with adapter at prime focus.

Canon Rebel attached to big telescope with adapter at prime focus.

Canon Rebel attached to big telescope with adapter at prime focus.

Canon Rebel attached to big telescope with adapter at prime focus.

Canon Rebel with 18-55mm lens attached piggyback to big scope.

Star visible just to the lower left of the Moon.  Canon Rebel attached to small telescope at prime focus.