OBSERVING REPORT FOR JUNE 8, 2019

Location:  Front Deck and side yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 8, 2019 2130-0000hrs

Weather:  No wind, mostly clear at  2130 hrs, shortly after that, most of the southern half of the sky was covered in light, wispy clouds.  Cooled off from 14C and 42% humidity to 6C and 59% humidity.  Just after dark, after 2200 hrs, the June bugs started to swarm for almost an hour.  First time I've seen them this year.  Some mosquitoes.  All bugs stopped after 2330 hrs.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  8" Meade LX 200 with 32mm eyepiece and .6x focal reducer, Canon T3 with 18-55 lens, and attached to telescope at prime focus.  Images processed with PhotoShop.

Objective:  To observe the Southern sky, Jupiter and the Moon.

Report:

• Moon, in Leo, was up high in the south western sky long before dark.  Viewed and imaged, with may craters visible through eyepiece.  Terminator was especially impressive.

• Jupiter's four moons were evenly spaced out, with one on one side and three on the other.  One belt was much thicker and easier to see, while the other thinner, fainter belt, just barely visible at times.  The Earths upper atmosphere made the gas giant shimmer as if under water.

• From the side yard, facing northward, Cassiopeia was low in the North East, just over the tree line.  Ursa Major was high, overhead, in the North West.
• No shooting stars were observed and only one satellite seen.  
• No interference from the dozens of satellites that were recently launched for the StarLink satellite internet system.
  
   

SPACESTATION FLYOVER

Location:  Front yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  May 18, 2019 2225-2240

Weather:  Sky mostly covered with light, broken clouds, very light breeze, 9C.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel T3 with 18-55mm lens and tripod.  Images processed with PhotoShop.

Attendance:  Ed O in Saint John, David McCashion

Objective:  To observe and image the International Space Station(ISS) as it was reported to fly over our area at 2229 hrs, according to Heavens-above.com

Report:

• Thanks to Ed for letting me know about the flyover!  He noticed on Heavens-above.com that there were going to be 5 flyovers of our area on this night.  Ed observed all five!
• It was mostly clear earlier, just before dark, but as it got closer to the flyover time of 2229 hrs, the sky covered up with light, elongated,broken clouds, that were partially see-through.
• A full Moon, in the South East was very bright, and made the 10 second exposure images look like they were taken in the afternoon.
• The space station looks like a moving, very bright star/planet when it passes over-head.

Images: 

MESSIER SEARCH 2019

Location:  Front yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time: April 1, 2019 from 2115-2315hr, April 2nd 0400-0530hrs

Weather:  Strong gusty winds, subsiding just before dawn, -2C through the evening, -5C at dawn.  Clear, with a reddish haze circling the horizon at during morning session.  Haze greatly affected viewing.

Attendance:  Ed O, David McCashion

Equipment:  Telescope 80 ED/APO with 30mm eyepiece and goto mount.

Objective:  To view as many messier objects as possible.

Report:

• Very gusty winds cooled things off drastically.
• Observed 30 messier objects through the whole session.  Details in the images below. 
• I worked the goto and we both observed, with Ed writing down our observations.
• Many were too low, below the tree line to see.  Many others, especially galaxies in Virgo were too faint to see, partially because of a reddish haze that circled then entire horizon in the morning.
• We both viewed three moons to one side of Jupiter, just before sunup, after first light.
• A few satellites were seen and about 6 shooting stars were seen.  Some very fast, but faint.

                  

Orion with M43 and M42 setting in the west at 2230hrs.

Taurus and M45 setting at 2232hrs.

COMET IWAMOTO

Location:  Front deck, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  February 10, 2019 1945-2230 hrs

Weather:  Gusty winds at times calm, back to breezy, -10C with reported windchill of -17C.  Humidity at 50%.  Bitter cold.  Clear.  Crescent Moon bright enough to put shadows down.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO with 30 mm 2" eyepiece, motorized mount, Canon Rebel using telescope at prime focus.  Images processed on Photoshop.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To observe Moon-Uranus-Mars Conjunction and attempt to view and image Comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto which was reported to be moving through Leo at 66 km/sec, relative to Earth.

Report:

• M31 observed and imaged.  Very bright in the eyepiece.  Note the dust lanes in the M31 image.

• M33 observed and imaged for the first time.  Spiral arms didnt show up in the eyepiece, but have in the image.

• Mars and the Moon observed and imaged.  Moon was bright enough to cast shadows on the ground.  Could not find Uranus.

• M42 observed
• Comet didn't get high enough to view and image, in the East, till after 2200 hrs.  Found Comet Iwamoto directly below galaxy M95, in Leo, almost right on the ecliptic.  Very faint, fainter than M33. 

30 sec exposure

60 sec exposure

• M44 observed. Very bright naked eye cluster of stars high up, to the south.
• One shooting star was seen, and no satellites seen.

MORNING COMET SEARCH

Location:  Front yard, Little Lepreau, NB

Date Time:  Feb 9, 2019 0500-0550hrs

Weather:  Temps dropping, gusty winds increasing.  Mostly clear, to partly cloudy, -6C with reported windchill of -14C, bitter cold.  Winds gusting from the SW approximately 60 kph, humidity at 94%.  Strong enough to blow tripod over!

Equipment:  Canon Rebel with 18-55mm lens, 20x80 binoculars.

Attendance:  Myself

Objective:  To view and image Comet Iwamoto C/2018 Y1 which was reported by Sky & Telescope magazine to be in Leo, and approaching binocular visibility.  It has been reported that this comet is a "fast mover", crossing the sky at 5 degrees/day.

Report:  

• Leo was high in the Western sky, with the reported location of the Comet lower, less then halfway above the horizon, moving towards Regulus.

Focal Length 25mm, f/4, ISO 1600, 30 sec.

• Jupiter rising, low in the SE.
• Took many images to help locate comet, but high winds made long exposure imaging difficult.  Comet did not turn up in view screen, but after processing, it may have been located in more zoomed in image.

Focal length 53mm, ISO 1600, f/4, 30 sec.

• Comet is very hard to see, in the image, but this is the general area where it should be.  Faint smudge might be the comet, which means it's about a degree east of where it's supposed to be according to the map.  Other reports indicate that the comet is a fast mover...moving about 5 degrees a day, which means that it probably wont be exactly where you look for it.
• Scanned the area thoroughly with 20x80 binos, before and after high level thin clouds passed.  Could not locate the comet with binos.
• No shooting stars were seen and one Iridium Flare was seen heading north, peaking in brightness straight over-head.

MORNING CONJUNCTION

Location:  Side yard, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  February 1, 2019 0720-0735 hrs

Weather:  Breezy, some passing, dark clouds moving eastward, -14C with a reported windchill of -28C.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel with 18-55 mm and 75-300 mm lenses.  Images processed on Photobucket.com

Attendance:  David McCashion

Report:

• Over the last few days of January into early February, there has been an early morning conjunction of a waning crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter.  It has created some interest on the internet.
• Venus was much brighter than Jupiter, but both were clearly visible, even in the early morning light.  Was bitterly cold imaging.

Focal length 55 mm, ISO 100, 1 sec, f/13

• Waning crescent moon was very low in the South East.

Focal length 300 mm, ISO 100, 1/2 sec, f/16

COMET & CONJUNCTION (Updated)

Location:  Front deck, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 8, 2018 1830-0005hrs

Weather:  Went from -12C to -13C with a reported windchill of -20C.  Wind picked up till about 2100hrs, then died off. Mostly clear to clear.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on motorized tracking mount, 32mm eyepiece, 20x80 binoculars on tripod, Canon Rebel with 18-55mm lens and attached to telescope at prime focus.  Images processed on PhotoShop.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To view and image a Mars/Neptune conjunction and the Comet 46P Wirtanen.

Report:

• Viewed and imaged the Mars/Neptune conjunction.  Mars was easy enough to find, but Neptune was not picked out amongst the back ground stars, even in the images.
• Comet 46P was very easy to find in the binoculars.  It was huge, greenish and diffuse with a brighter central region.  It moved eastward towards Taurus, approximately 5 degrees from where it was two nights ago.
• Was able to see the comet with averted vision, for the first time.  Its huge and reminds me of M31 when viewed with unaided eye under dark skies.
• Nearest bright star to Comet 46P is the 4.5 magnitude star Menkar in the Constellation Cetus.  According to Richard Hinkley Allens' "Star Names Their Lore and Meanings", Menkar is Arabic for"Nose of Cetus".

Comet in the SW sky just after midnight.  Camera with 18-55mm lens, 30 second exposure.

Facing South, Camera with 18-55mm lens, 25 second exposure.

Camera attached to telescope at prime focus, 2 minute exposure.

• Five shooting stars were seen directly with three more out of the corner of my eye.