Mars, Moon & Jupiter

 Location:  Lower Westside, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  April 2, 2025 2100-2130hrs

Weather:  Cool, -0.5C, 39%, no wind, hazy, but mostly clear except for paper plant smoke blowing south-westward across western horizon.

Attendance:  Benson and Myself.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel with 18-55 & 75-300mm lens.

Objective: Benson and I to observe Jupiter and the Moon.

Report:

• As I was setting up tripod, Benson noticed a deer nearby.
• The Moon and Jupiter were high in the western sky, less than 5 degrees apart.

Moon & Jupiter.

Facing West, Sirius, Orion and Jupiter.

Waxing crescent 28% illuminated.

• Mars was next to Pollux and Castor in Gemini.

Procyon lower left
Beehive Cluster upper left
Mars next to Pollux, upper center left.

Jamaica Trip 2025

 Location:  Resort Montego Bay, Jamaica

Date Time:  February 23-27, 2025

Weather:  Evening weather was 27C and very humid, mostly clear.  Early morning, before dawn weather was 25C, very humid and mostly cloudy.  South western sky, where Southern Cross was in the mornings, stayed cloudy for all mornings I was there.

Equipment:  Cellphone camera & binoculars.

Report:

• On the first evening  I could see the second brightest star in the sky, Alpha Carinae or Canopus.  According to Richard Hinckley Allen in "Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning" Alpha Carine, -0.4, white.  Paraphrasing, Canopus is Arabic for The Rudder.  "The slackened rudder has been placed beneath The hind-feet of the Dog."
• Canopus appeared very bright, very low, directly south, far below and to the left of Sirius, which is the brightest star in the sky.  Orion was very high in the western sky, almost over-head
•  While attempting to view Omega Centauri and The Southern Cross, both in the south western, predawn sky.  This area of sky was covered by cloud every early morning I was there.  It actually rained most nights.  On two occasions I did observe Alpha Centauri, the third brightest star in the sky, and Beta Centauri, very, low in the southern sky, just to the left of the wall of clouds.
• Again, according to RHA in his "Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning" Alpha Centauri, Binary, 0.2 and 1.5, white and yellowish.  "Baily's edition of Ulug Beg's catalogue gives this as Rigil Kentaurus, from Al Rigil al Kentaurus, the Centaur's Foot ..."
• The Big Dipper goes below the northern horizon from here, but also comes 

Partial Solar Eclipse (Observing Only No pictures)

Location:  Saints Rest Beach and Hwy 1 near mile marker 168, west of Bloomfield exit, NB, Canada

Date Time:  March 29, 2025 0715-0730 Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB

                                      0755-0813 near Bloomfield Marsh, Hwy 1, NB

Weather:  Mostly cloudy, very windy and cold in Saint John and at the beach.  Temps were -6C with reported windchill of -10C and 100% humidity with forecasted possibility of snow.  

Attendance:  Edward O, and Myself.

Equipment:  Eclipse Glasses.

Report: 

• Saints Rest Beach - We couldn't see the eclipsed sun from first parking lot, but could see that second parking lot was lit by sun so we went to it.  By the time we got there the clouds took over.  We we couldn't see the sun with the eclipse glasses.  We waited for the fast moving clouds, which were blowing from North to South across the eastern horizon, to part enough to see the eclipse, which was underway at that time.  Ed noticed that there was clearing to the NE so we decide to try for Hampton on the chance of catching a glimpse.
• The area of sky where the sun was was covered still at Hampton, so we decided to continue as there was still time, if we could find clear skies.  We continued along the highway and finally caught a glimpse of the sun as we approached Bloomfield Marshes.  We pulled over on the Hwy just before mile marker 168.  As we were slowing down to stop Ed exclaimed, "Sun Dog"!  Sure enough, there it was, to the left of where the Sun was, an amazing sight, that I've only seen once before.  It's an atmospheric optic, and we could only see the left part of the halo, as clouds covered the right part of the sky was cloudy.
• We pulled over safely and put our eclipse glasses on and could clearly see the eclipsed sun from inside the vehicle.  The left part of the sun was eclipsed, like a cookie with a 20% bite out of it.  The NE section of the sun was eclipsed.  We stayed and observed the eclipsed sun with eclipse glasses until the moon moved off the sun at 0813 hrs.  We were very lucky to observe this, due to challenging weather conditions.
• Here is a quick ABC News video with images.