GREAT CONJUNCTION 2020

 Location:  Lower West-Side, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 23, 2020 1745-1805hrs

Weather:  Gusty 25km/hr winds from the north, -4.7C, humidity 69%, mostly clear except for considerable clouds around the western, northern and southern horizons.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm and 75-300 lenses.  Image processed for text on Photoshop.

Objective:  To view and image Jupiter and Saturn, two days after the historic conjunction on Dec 21, 2020, when they were 1/10th of a degree apart.  

Report:  This conjunction was an amazing sight in the evening twilight!

A long stretch of cloudiness(almost a week) prevented viewing and imaging this amazing conjunction on Dec 21.  This was when the conjunction was at its closest.

I would estimate that the planets were about one half of a degree apart at observing time. 

Shortly after this image was taken, clouds covered this area of the sky for several minutes.  When the planets reappeared, it was through increasing and decreasing cloudiness and haziness.

Also noteworthy during observing time was a close pairing of a young waxing gibbous Moon and Mars.  They were about 5 degrees apart.

Single shot, 3 second ISO 400, f/5.6.

GEMINIDS 2020

 Location:  Saint John West, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 14, 2020 0120-0153hrs

Weather:  Slight breeze, mostly clear through observing time, which was the only break in the clouds in days.  Cool, 2.3C, 99% humidity.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Equipment:  None.

Objective:  To view as many Geminid meteors as possible, during a short break in the cloud cover.

Report:

The sky cleared from 0120 to 0153am.  It was mostly to completely cloudy before and after observing time.

I faced mostly North East, towards Ursa Major, and South East towards Leo.  Seen 20 Geminids.  All observed meteors were Geminids  There were no sparodics.  This included 1 bolide at 0125 hrs, which descended slowly down through the handle of big dipper, straight into uptown Saint John from my vantage point.  The bolide was easily twice as big and bright as Venus, and appeared to wobble and slow down as it dropped.

Most meteors were fast, short/medium period of about 1 mag brightness, brilliant white color.  Some had yellow ting.  A few were very short period, were very fast and fainter.

There was a meteor grouping around Ursa Major at around 0130 hrs, then another grouping to the south of Leo at around 0145 hrs.  Seen two Geminids around Orion, through the oncoming clouds.

MARS OPPOSITION 2020

Location:  Saint John West, NB, Canada

Date time:  October 14, 2020 2130-2300hrs

Weather:  Mostly clear, except for smoke from a nearby pulp and paper plant, that happened to be drifting our way.  It was moving from west to south east.  Air was cool and moist, mostly still no wind, 10C with a humidity of 85%.

Attendance:  Myself

Equipment:  8" Meade LX 200 with 25mm and 19mm, yellow and blue filters.  Canon Rebel xsi with 18-55mm lens.

Objective:  To view and image a very close, big from our perspective, Mars.  Mars was at opposition the day before, which only happens every two years.  This year, however, Mars is closer than normal to Earth and rarely gets as high in our sky.

Report:

• Mars was in Pisces and very high in the sky during observing.  Over 37 degrees above the horizon, at observing time, to over 50 degrees high, at it's highest, over-night!  It appeared 22 arc seconds across, compared to Jupiter's 38 arc seconds and Saturn's 16 arc seconds.  This is a huge view of Mars, comparatively speaking!
• In the eyepiece, Mars was huge!  It was showing a faint waving line across its disk.  The wavy line showed up in the blue filter a little more, with other features barely visible as darker colored blotches, randomly place across its disk.  The yellow filter hid the line and showed no features.  
•  I couldn't get that wavy line, or any features to show up in images.
• No shooting stars or Satellites were seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER 2020

 Location:  Petersville Hill on Hwy 7, NB, Canada

Date Time:  August 12, 2020 2244-0144hrs

Weather:  Mostly cloudy to partly cloudy to mostly clear with much haziness and some ground fog.  Surprisingly warm breeze at times stronger than others, towards the end of observing session, air was completely still.  No dew and a few bugs, 23C at Petersville Hill at 0144hrs and 14C in Saint John at 0215hrs.  Was foggy all the way to Petersville Hill, at 2230hrs, but fog was mostly gone all the way to SJ on the way back at 0200hrs.  Sea fog was still very thick in SJ at 0215hrs.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly, David McCashion.

Equipment:  Ed's binoculars, my camera with 18-55mm lens, reclining lawn chairs.

Objective:  To view and image as many Perseid Meteors as possible.  This shower was due to peak on the nights of  Aug 11 and 12.  Aug 11 was fogged out in SJ, so after checking the weather websites, we thought we had a better chance to head towards Fredericton to see if we could find clear skies.  We found clear skies at Petersville Hill.

Report:

• Passing clouds and haziness was a major factor for at least the first two hours of observing, but at all times there was at least a part of the sky that we could see stars.
• Ed and I both looked for Comet Neowise, which was supposed to be below Arcturus, but could not find the comet with the binoculars.  Maybe due to too much haziness.
  
• In all, over 3 hours, together we seen 76 meteors with 15 being sporadics.  That averaged about 20 Perseids/hr.  Most Perseids were medium speed, either faint or very faint, yellowish.  There were 4 Perseids that were very bright, with one bolide that flew low, in the direction of Saint John and appeared to break up.  Most all the Persieds left a smoke trail.
  

 

•  Many satellites were seen going in all directions, for the entire observing session.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREE COMETS NEAR ARCTURUS

 Location:  St. Martin's, NB, Canada

Date Time:  August 8, 2020 2130-2345hrs

Weather:  Party cloudy, hazy, no wind, no dew, many mosquitoes for first hour, 19c at 2130hrs, 15c at 2345hrs.

Attendance:  Myself.

Equipment:  Canadian Telescopes 80 ed/apo with Canon Rebel T3 attached at prime focus.  20x80 binoculars.  Images processed with Photoshop.

Objective:  To view and image as many comets as possible in the NW sky, as soon as it gets dark enough.  Also, to view and image a close pairing of a waning Gibbous Moon and Mars, and to look for any Perseid meteors which might fly over.  The Perseids peak on August 11 and the Earth has not entered it's debris field, so there is a chance to see the bright yellow, smoke trail making shooting stars.

Report:

• Set up, about 100 yards from the beach in St. Martin's, so the humidity from the water seemed high, but I didn't have a way to tell what the humidity level was exactly.  For most of the observing session most of the southern sky was covered by passing clouds.  It took a long time for the sky to darken enough to start looking for the faint comets, which were halfway up in the NW sky.

 

•  It took until about 1015pm for the sky to darken enough to look for the comets with binoculars.  Comet Neowise popped out easily in the field of view.  It has a bright central region, with a hint of a huge fanlike tail from the 10 o'clock position to the 12' o'clock position.  Greenish with varying brightness across its visible disk.  The other comets did not show up in the binoculars.
• Aligned scope on Arcturus and Alkaid.  Imaged M3, which was about halfway between Alkaid and the first comet I was going to image, Comet Neowise.  Comet Panstarrs T2 was very faint, and was located about halfway between Comet U6 and Neowise.  Panstarrs showed up better in the viewscreen of the camera than what could be drawn out by image processing.  Comet U6 was very near Muphrid, which was just out of the image field of view.  A very faint, grayish, irregular shaped blob without a bright central region.  All comet images were taken with the same camera settings to show a comparison.  They were 30 second and ISO of 6400, with the exception of the M3 image which was 30 seconds and ISO of 1600.
  

 

 

 

 

•  The comets were near Arcturus and Mophrid in Bootes.  According to Richard Hinkley Allen, in his Star Names Their Lore and Meaning, Arcturus, aka Alpha Bootes is 0.3 magnitude, and is golden yellow.  Hinkley dedicates many pages to Bootes and Arcturus.  Being one of the brightest stars in the sky, it has an amazingly rich history amongst many different cultures.  For western cultures, the kite-like asterism is thought of as "The Herdsman".  Arcturus is Latin, for 'guardian of the bear'.
  

•  Also, according to Richard Hinkley, Muphrid is 2.8 magnitude and pale yellow..  Derives from the Arabic word Al Mufrid al Ramih.  It means Solitary Star of the Lancer.
• After viewing and imaging the three comets, I made an attempt to image Comet 88P Howell, which was in Virgo.  But, by this time it was too low in the NW sky to image.
• Turned to Saturn and Jupiter which were just to the east of a nice bright milkyway, in the south.  Took portrait and landscape style images.
  

 

•  As I was finishing up, around 1130pm, noticed a very low, reddish, waning gibbous moon rising in the East,over the Bay of Fundy.  It was very close to a very bright Mars.

 

•  Many satellites were seen and some even ruined images.  One very bright Perseid was seen around 1030pm.  Long, bright, yellow streak that left a very long, long lasting smoke trail.  It flew just over Bootes, from the NE, straight down to the SW.  As I was searching for comets with binos, seen another smoke trail, but didn't see the Perseid.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEOWISE MOVES INTO CIRCUMPOLAR REGION OF SKY

Location:  Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 15, 2020 2230-2310hrs

Weather:  Gusty winds from the NW, very cool, jacket weather, 13C, 61% humidity, party cloudy around the horizon, but mostly clear through rest of sky.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, 20x80 binoculars.

Attendance:  Brandon, Ed from his place, and Myself.

Objective:  To view and image Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise, which as moved into the evening sky and is now circumpolar.

Report:

• Weather forecast was calling for mostly cloudy skies.  We have had almost a month straight of foggy/cloudy weather, at night, with very few, short breaks, in places.  This has made viewing and imaging this spectacular comet very difficult up to now.  Surprisingly, according to Ed, a few hours before dark, a cool, north west wind blew through.  This cleared out what was going to be another cloudy/foggy night.
• Went out around 2230 hrs to look for comet, which was supposed to be in the NNW sky.  After a short, naked eye scan of the low northern sky, Comet Neowise popped out easily, under the Big Dipper with it's 2 degree tail pointing in the approx. 1:30 position.  This tail direction was very different from the morning viewing of the comet on July 10, 2020, where the tail was pointing almost straight up in the 12:00 direction.  Nucleus is very bright, while the tail is much dimmmer, but very see-able.  Wasn't completely dark until almost 2300 hrs.  Comet was spectacular in binoculars!  It took up at least a half of the field of view!  Very bright central region, with striations of brightness through the tail.  Naked eye, the darker the sky got, around 2300hrs, the comet became very easy to see, even in all the light pollution from the City.  A truly wonderful thing to see!

Single shot, taken at 2238 hrs, 4 sec, f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 800.

Saint John River, Ocean Steel and the NB Museum on Douglas Ave seen in the foreground.  Single shot, taken at 2232 hrs, 3 sec, f/5.6, 55mm, ISO 800.

•  Saturn and Venus were very bright, close together and low in the southern sky during this time.

Single shot, image taken at 2040 hrs, 4 sec, f/5.6, 130mm, ISO 800.

•  No satellites or shooting stars were seen.

COMET NEOWISE F3

Location:  Saint John to Petersville Hill on Hwy 7, NB, Canada

Date Time:  July 10, 2020 0245-0530 hrs

Weather:  Foggy most all the way from Saint John to Petersville Hill, which is about halfway between Saint John and Fredericton, NB on Hwy 7.  Fog seemed to thicken and thin on the way to Petersville Hill.  Temperature was 13C with 91% humidity, and no wind or breeze of any kind.  No movement of the air, made for perfect foggy conditions.

Attendance:  Ed O'Reilly and David McCashion.

Equipment:  Ed brought his 15x70 and camera.  I used my Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55 and 75-300mm lenses.  Images processed with PhotoShop.

Objective:  To view and image a bright, naked eye comet, which was supposed to be visible low on the eastern horizon, just before first light.

Report:  

•  There has been many sightings around the world of this comet for about the last week. However, the weather has been cloudy here in Saint John ever since the comet first started becoming visible in the morning sky.  Here is an image from Tuesday, July 7, 2020 from my first attempt to view this comet.  The mostly cloudy sky started to break up just before first light, but not enough to see the comet.

• 0245 hrs on July 10, 2020 weather was foggy in Saint John so Ed and I met up and headed out to Petersville Hill after looking at the online weather forecast.  It was showing cloudy towards Sussex, so we thought our best chance of seeing the comet was to head inland towards Fredericton.
• 0400 hrs, once at Petersville Hill, we got out of the car and had no trouble seeing the comet, which was surprisingly high above the eastern horizon, and about 20 degrees to the left of a very bright Venus.  The comet had to contend with a 75% illuminated, gibbous Moon also, which was high in the south eastern sky very near to a very bright Mars. (More on Mars below)

Single shot, 1/80 second, ISO 100, 300mm taken at 0442 hrs.

• Comet's tail was approximately 3 degrees long, and is the first thing we noticed, naked eye.  It appeared, out of the corner of my eye, as a line in the sky, going straight up and down and was the first thing that caught our eye, below Capella and Menkalinan.  

Single shot, 8 sec, ISO 6400, f/5.4, 18mm, image cropped and enhanced.  Star magnitudes are included to show brightness of comet.  It was approximately magnitude 2, imo.

• Menkalinan, also known as Beta Aurigae, according to Richard Hinckley Allen, in his book, Star Names Their Lore and Meaning is a 2.1 magnitude star which is "lucid yellow'".  Menkalinan means 'the Shoulder of the Rein-holder.'  Also from Star Names Their Meaning and Lore, Auriga the Charioteer, is a large constellation, stretching northward across the Milky Way from Taurus to Camelopardalis.  Capella, also known as Alpha Aurigae, a 0.3 magnitude, white star.  Capella means 'the Little She-goat'.
• The comet was spectacular in 15x70 binoculars!  A very bright central nucleus, with a wide tail that seemed brighter on one side, with striations.  Took much of the field of view in the binoculars.  Took many images of varying focal lengths and different settings.  Ed and I agree that this is the brightest comet since comet Holmes in 2007.

8 second, ISO 6400, 55mm taken at 0403hrs

8 second, ISO 6400, 300mm, f/5.6, image taken at 0408 hrs.

2 second, ISO 1600, 75mm, f/5.6, image taken at 0437 hrs.

•  A very bright Venus was near Aldebaran in Taurus, along the eastern horizon, about 20 degrees to the right of the comet.  Venus was a very bright -4.4 magnitude, very close to as bright as it gets.

4 second, ISO 1600, 75mm, image taken at 0416 hrs.

• Mars, which was high in the SE sky, is much closer to Earth this year, which happens every other year due to the two planets being on the same side of the Sun in their respective orbits.  This makes it possible to view features on Mars with smaller sized telescopes.  It's disk, in the telescope eyepiece, is going to be very much bigger/easier to see this summer.

• One satellite was seen, passing through binocular field of view, while viewing the comet.  No shooting stars were seen.  On the trip home, fog remained all the way back to Saint John, and stayed cloudy/foggy for most of the morning, well past sun-up.