GREAT RED SPOT

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

Date Time:  June 10, 2018 from 2200-0300hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear, slightly hazy skies, some breeze just after dark at about 2230 hrs to no wind  with fluctuating conditions (some passing clouds/haziness), very cool, no bugs.  Temperatures were 6C till around midnight, a very cool 5C at midnight and a bitter 4C after 0230 hrs that came with dew.  Strange weather conditions, but good for observing, as if it were warmer, bugs would be an issue.

Equipment:  Meade LX 200 8" telescope with 19mm and 9mm  eyepieces with yellow light filter.  Canon Rebel Xsi with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.  Images processed on Photobucket.com

Attendance:  Bradley H, David McCashion.

Objective:  To view Jupiter and Mars.  Mars approaching Opposition on July 27, 2018 which will see it become three times brighter than it is now.

Report:

• Just after first dark, Bradley noticed that low in the Eastern sky a glow coming from a growing community west of Saint John.  Light pollution encroaching on an otherwise very dark sky area.  
• Jupiter was viewed first with 19mm eyepiece with and without yellow light filter. Yellow light filter cut down the glare from Jupiter in the eyepiece, but didn't help with viewing the belts much.  Moons were nicely spread out, with two on one side, and two on the other side.

Imaged with Canon Rebel with 75-300mm lens.

Imaged with Canon Rebel attached to telescope at prime focus.

Imaged with Canon Rebel attached to telescope at prime focus.

• Just after midnight, looked for the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and seen it for the first time in the eyepiece.  Stood out as a smudge on the lower belt that shook with the telescope, which means it's a feature on the giant planet.  The spot didn't turn out well in images, but did show up nicely in a couple cellphone videos taken through the 19mm eyepiece.  However, after downloading on YouTube, the quality doesn't seem to match the playback on the cellphone itself.

• Observed and imaged double star Delta Corvus (Algorab).  This is the pointer star in Corvus.  Sky was particularly hazy at during visual observing through telescope.  A very faint second star was seen very close to Algorab.  

Images with Canon Rebel with 18-55mm lens.

• Waited for Mars to rise in the East, above the trees.  Viewed in 9mm eyepiece and imaged around 0300hrs.  Mars disk was very big and bright with a lighter patch near one limb that might have been a polar cap.  Some differences in light brightness across the disk hinting at features coming into view, that cannot be seen with my equipment when the red planet is farther away.  It's a special time, every two years, as Earth approaches Mars in their respective orbits.  As it gets closer, features that are normally too faint for me to see, start to come into view.

Mars imaged with Canon Rebel attached to telescope at prime focus.  Slight light patch along upper limb might be polar cap.  Changes in light across disk might be features.

• Faint, fast shooting star was seen coming from Ophiuchus, passed just under and to the west of Jupiter, in the SW.  One satellite observed at 0300hrs moving south, in the SE.