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Sunday, February 10, 2019

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.


Saturday, February 9, 2019

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.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

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

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