OBSERVING REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Location:  Side yard in Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time: November 16, 2015  1730-2200hrs

Weather:  Mostly cloudy early to mostly clear by 1900hrs, a very cold 2C with a windchill -4C,, some light breeze to no wind.  Looked like rain was possible early on.  Snowed earlier on through the day a little.

Attendance:  Brandon H, David M.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80ED/APO on Vixen Alt Az mount with 2" 32mm eyepiece.  Samsung Nexus  4 cellphone camera with Ioptron cellphone adapter with 15mm eyepiece and a Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR camera with adapter to connect to telescope.

Objective:  To image and view the Crescent Moon.

Highlights:

• Brandon and I had a nice view of a Crescent Moon which was fairly high up, inbetween clouds early in the evening.  Many craters could be seen as well as Earthshine.  Brandon noted that stars could be seen next to the Moon in the eyepiece field of view.  Many images of Moon were taken with cellphone camera and DSLR camera.
• We also had a very nice view of M45.  Brandon noted the shape of this star cluster and the tightness of the grouping.  A couple of images were taken with cellphone camera.
• Searched for M13, but it was too low, behind some trees in the NW.
• Searched around for M15 but couldn't find it.
• As we were playing 21 basketball game, Brandon seen two shooting stars.  Might have seen one out of the corner of my eye.
• No satellites were seen.

Images:

M45 with cellphone camera attached to telescope.

TAURID METEOR SHOWER

Location:  Stevens' House, Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  November 9, 2015  2100-0000hrs

Weather:  Cool 8C feels like 6C, dew point 2C no dew, no wind, clear very dark skies.

Equipment:  Stevens' 20' Dobsonion with 22mm 2" eyepiece and a stepladder to reach eyepiece!  My Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses and Samsung Nexus 4 cellphone camera.

Attendance:  Matthew W., Steven T, Ed O, and David M.

Objective:  To view Comet Panstarrs C/2013 X1 which was said to be in Perseus with Stevens huge telescope.

Highlights:

• This might have been the last time we have access to Stevens big telescope due to circumstances, so we tried to see as many celestial objects as we could with limited time.
• With Eds help, we found 17 Messier objects including 57, 13, 92, 27, 31, 45, 71, 15, 74, 1, 42, 43, 78, 33, 32, 110, and 77.
• M15 was a first time for me.  Curt talked about it at the last Saint John Astronomy Club meeting and it was goal of mine.  According to William Henry Smyth in his 'Cycle of Celestial Objects', "Although this noble cluster is rated globular, it is not exactly round and under the best circumstances is seen as in the diagram, with stragglers branching from a Central blaze."  We all noted how bright the center of the globular appeared.
• M78 was also a first for me.  Two close stars in a faint cloud.
• My first view of M1.  A very ghostly, small cloud that seemed to have dimension to it.
• M33 we all viewed faint spiral arms.
• M42 and M43 were simply spectacular!  Two huge 'arms' of clouds with definite dimension and depth and a well defined head (M43)!  Ed and I agreed that this was the best we have ever seen this Nebula.  I have never seen it like this before!
• Ed and I did an extensive search for Comet C/2013 X1, in Perseus to no avail.  We later found out that we were looking too far to the East.
• Comet C/2014 S2 Panstarrs, in Ursa Minor was below the tree line during observing time.
• The tail end of Pegasus star named Enif was used to find M15.  We all observed this star in Stephens' 20" Dobsonion and all agreed on how brilliantly yellow it was.
• Rigel was split...barely.  The fainter companion was very close to main star in the 910 o'clock position.  A first time for me splitting this difficult double star.
• The Taurid Meteor Shower was underway and put on a great show!  Matthew seen 6 Taurids and 2 others.  Ed and Steven seen several and I seen 10 Taurids, 3 others including 1 huge fireball that left a smoke trail.  Most that I seen were either in NW or almost straight up to the south.  The ones high up were faint and rather short while the ones to the NW were longer and brighter.  One Satellite was seen.

Images:

Orion over Stevens house with Canon and 18-55mm lens.

Area Comet Panstars was supose to be in Perseus with Canon and 75-300mm lens.

M42 with cellphone camera.  

Rigel with Cellphone camera

The next morning, Ed went out to check out the Conjunction and spotted this thin Crescent Moon!  I went out with the Canon and imaged it.

COMET PANSTARRS C/2014 S2

Location:  Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  November 2, 2015 2115-2145hrs

Weather:  Clouds along the horizon to the North and East, no wind, and a cool 5C.

Equipment:  20x80 binoculars, Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, both mounted on tripod.

Attendance:  David M

Objectives:  To view and image Comet PanStarrs C/2014 S2, which was near one of the Little Dippers(Ursa Minors') asterism stars.  Also, to watch for Auroras where were predicted to appear by spaceweather.com and to keep an eye out for Taurid Meteors, as the Taurid Meteor shower is still underway.

Highlights:

• After an extensive search with binoculars, could not confirm a sighting of the faint magnitude 10 Comet.  Comet was suppose to be just West of Anwar during this time, according to this star chart at Heavensabove.com
• Took images of Ursa Minor with both lenses, 15 second exposure images with 300mm lens, and 20 second exposure images with the smaller lens.  Didn't find the comet until the images were downloaded onto my computer, then processed with ArcsoftMediaImressions.
• Two Taurids sighted.
• One bright, medium speed, yellowish shooting star on a straight line from Pleiades starting in the NNE going NW.  Pleiades was fairly low in the East during observing time.
• Second shooting star was same color and speed as the first, but came straight down from high over-head almost straight through the Little Dipper, as I was imaging it.  Didn't capture it in the image though.
• No Auroras or satellites were observed.

Images:

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