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| Northern Lights from Cabano, QC June 18/12 0100hrs. |
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Late Spring Planet Show Images and Report
Location: Little Lepreau, NB
Date Time: May20/12 2045-2300hrs
Weather: 18 degrees Celsius, clear skies, slight wind.
Equipment: Canon Rebel DSLR attached to Meade 8"LX200 telescope with no eyepiece.
Attendance: Richard P., Myself.
Report: Very nice viewing conditions, but the slight breeze that was coming off the Bay of Fundy was enough to bounce the image too much for long exposure shots.
Venus was big and bright in the western sky just as the sun was going down. Saturn was in the SE above and to the right of Spica and Mars was high in the SW in the constelation Leo.
This was my first time getting an image of Venus in the crescent phase. There is not much to see when looking at Venus, except for the phase. The atmosphere is so thick that all we can see with ground based telescopes is its off white colored atmosphere.
There was another first for me on this night: This was my first image of Saturn that clearly shows its rings. It was determined that by adjusting the shutter time to a faster speed and decreasing the ISO setting the image went from a shinning blob to a clearer view of the ringed planet. The next phase in increasing the qualitity of my imaging is to stack photos.
There was also another first for Richard on this night: Richard did not know that Venus sometimes appears to us as a crescant shape through even small telescopes or binoculars and this was his first time observing this phenomenon. Its always enjoyable to give someone a first time observing a celstial object.
One curious thing was that there was no shooting stars observed on this night. Usually there are at least one or two and we were there observing for over two hours.
Date Time: May20/12 2045-2300hrs
Weather: 18 degrees Celsius, clear skies, slight wind.
Equipment: Canon Rebel DSLR attached to Meade 8"LX200 telescope with no eyepiece.
Attendance: Richard P., Myself.
Report: Very nice viewing conditions, but the slight breeze that was coming off the Bay of Fundy was enough to bounce the image too much for long exposure shots.
Venus was big and bright in the western sky just as the sun was going down. Saturn was in the SE above and to the right of Spica and Mars was high in the SW in the constelation Leo.
This was my first time getting an image of Venus in the crescent phase. There is not much to see when looking at Venus, except for the phase. The atmosphere is so thick that all we can see with ground based telescopes is its off white colored atmosphere.
There was another first for me on this night: This was my first image of Saturn that clearly shows its rings. It was determined that by adjusting the shutter time to a faster speed and decreasing the ISO setting the image went from a shinning blob to a clearer view of the ringed planet. The next phase in increasing the qualitity of my imaging is to stack photos.
There was also another first for Richard on this night: Richard did not know that Venus sometimes appears to us as a crescant shape through even small telescopes or binoculars and this was his first time observing this phenomenon. Its always enjoyable to give someone a first time observing a celstial object.
One curious thing was that there was no shooting stars observed on this night. Usually there are at least one or two and we were there observing for over two hours.
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| Camera set to 1/8 sec shutter time and ISO 400 |
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| Camera set to 1/3 sec shutter time and ISO100 |
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| Camera set to 1/100 sec shutter time and ISO 400 |
Friday, January 20, 2012
Winter Observing from Saints Rest Beach
Date: January 19, 2012 2310hrs to 2350hrs
Location: Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB
Weather: -10 Degrees Celsius, strong wind coming off the Bay of Fundy, almost completely clear except for a couple of very high small, light clouds.
Equipment: Cannon Rebel DSLR on tripod.
Objective: To image Mars and Jupiter. At observing time, Jupiter was less than halfway up in the sky in the west and Mars was lower in the East.
Notes: The red line in two of the images are different airplanes. These images were all time elapsed, so instead of just a red dot appearing, the plane shows up as a long red streak.
Location: Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB
Weather: -10 Degrees Celsius, strong wind coming off the Bay of Fundy, almost completely clear except for a couple of very high small, light clouds.
Equipment: Cannon Rebel DSLR on tripod.
Objective: To image Mars and Jupiter. At observing time, Jupiter was less than halfway up in the sky in the west and Mars was lower in the East.
Notes: The red line in two of the images are different airplanes. These images were all time elapsed, so instead of just a red dot appearing, the plane shows up as a long red streak.
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| Jupiter in the western sky. 20 second time exposure, 1600 ISO |
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| Mars over Saint John, NB |
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| Mars under the constellation Leo |
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| Ship behind island on the Bay of Fundy looking straight out onto bay from the beach. The two lights on the horizon are lighthouses on the coast of Nova Scotia. |
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| Ship on the Bay Fundy under the stars. Picture is taken facing to the south. |
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| Cassiopeia and the Andromeda Galaxy(M31). |
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| Orion The Hunter |
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| Taurus The Bull and Pleiades (M45) |
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| Big Dipper Standing on End over Saint John, through the city lights. 30 sec time exposure, 1600 ISO |
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Search for Mercury Clouded Out Jan4/12 0530hrs to 0900hrs
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| Saints Rest Beach, -27 Degrees Air Temp Steam coming off of Bay of Fundy |
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| Crow Looking for Breakfast |
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| This picture is facing SE where Mercury is suppose to be, just before sun-up. The low level cloud was the only cloud in the Sky and it stretched along the horizon from the East(Left of the lights) all the way to the south(out of the picture on the right) |
Observing Pics
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| Bright 'star' in lower middle left is Mars. Image taken Jan 4/12 at 0545hrs at Saints Rest Beach, Saint John, NB. The red streaks are either the Northern Lights or lights from the City of Saint John. |
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| Bright 'star' in middle to the right is Saturn. Image taken Jan 4/12 at 0620hrs |
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Irving Nature Park Dedicated to Observing
Irving Nature Park was named Canadas first Urban Sky Park on Aug 12, 2011. In celebration of this event, the Saint John Astronomy Club hosted a mini star party. Along with about 20 amature astronomers with their own personal telescopes, about 100 members of the public showed up for observing from about 7pm to midnight.
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