OBSERVING REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Location:  Front Porch, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  February 20, 2016 1900-2100hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear with few broken clouds at first then completely clear, slight breeze to no wind, -2C with windchill of -4C.  A very rare clear night for observing.

Equipment:  Meade 8" LX 200 with 32mm, 12.5mm and 9mm eyepieces.  Samsung S5 Neo with Cellphone adapter.

Attendance:  Myself

Objective:  To view and image Venus which is in its Crescent Phase at this time.

Highlights:

• Venus and Mars were 1/3 of the way up in the sky in the west at 1900 hrs, which put them just above the rooftop from the porch.  Venus was a much thinner crescent in the eyepiece than it showed in images.  Disc of Mars could be seen at high magnification, which was surprising, as it is so far away at this time.  No detail could be seen across its face though.
• Viewed and imaged M42 and M43.  M42 was huge and bright in the 32mm eyepiece.  Trapesium stars were easily split with this high magnification telescope and good quality eyepiece.  Spectacular, one of the most amazing things to see in this telescope.  Images did not turn out though
• Viewed and imaged Sirius.  Very bright, bluish.
• Split Double star Mintaka on Orion's Belt.
• One Satellite Seen, no shooting stars observed.

Images:

Double Star Mintaka on Orion's Belt.

Sirius, brightest and closest star that can be seen from NB.

Venus in crescent phase.  Was much thinner crescent in eyepiece.

Disc of Mars.