Astronomy Observing Reports: ASTRONOMY BY THE BAY

Location: Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time: June 10, 2017 2130-0117

Weather: Mostly clear, some hazy and foggy periods giving away to mostly clear, breezy, cool, 9C.

Attendance: Chris Curwin, David McCashion and 9 others.

Equipment: Chris's 10" Dob with 13mm eyepiece, giving a magnification of 100x, Cellphone with Ioptron cellphone adapter, live streamed video of Moon on Chris's Astronomy By The Bay Facebook page. Chris also has a twitter page for Astronomy By The Bay. My Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO on Vixen Alt/Az mount with 19mm and 12mm eyepieces. Cellphone attached to 19mm eyepiece with cellphone adapter. Canon Rebel Xsi with telescope attachment.

Objective: Public outreach with fellow SJAC member Chris Curwin.

Report:

Set up on beach around 2200 just as Moon appeared in the east, just over the bay. Amazing sight! Took a reddish, small flat shape that was no where near the normal size and shape of Moon. Everyone commented on its amazing appearance and how fast it rose.

Image taken with DSLR camera attached to telescope.

Jupiter was bright in the south south west throughout the evening. It seemed like two or three of its moons were either behind the gas giant or in front of it. For a while, two moons could be seen, for a while only one moon could be seen.

Jupiter with 2 moons showing.

According to Heavens-above.com, the International Space Station (ISS) was suppose to appear in the wsw @ 2251 hrs and disappear in the ssw @ 2254 hrs. At 2252 hrs, ISS came into view in the wsw, moving slowly, low in the sky. Appearing not as bright as Jupiter, I tracked the station with rigel red circle finder on scope while Diane of the SJAC looked through the eyepiece. She couldn't see much detail, other than it wasn't perfectly round. Station went out of sight directly south, far before it was suppose to, possibly because of clouds on the horizon.
After this with my scope with 19mm eyepiece, searched the area of Bootes where Comet Johnson was suppose to be. After an extensive search of the area, could not confirm a sighting. This could have been due to brightness of Moons which was leaving deep shadows on the ground.
Around 2300 hrs Chris ran a cellphone video-cast via his Facebook live feed. Lots of people commented online. Chris asked me to give a Comet Johnson update. We then talked about the Moon.
Objects observed with members of public: ISS flyover, Albireo in the East, Moon in the East, Saturn in South East, Jupiter in the South west and managed to split Polaris the North Star. Talked about, double stars, constellations the Milky-way and satellites.