The Moon, Mars and Venus

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Benoit Guertin

It’s not often that the Moon finds itself between two planets nicely lined up and within a 12 degree field of view. Just yesterday at around the same time, the Moon was located below Venus. The image below is a two second exposure at ISO 800 with 53mm lens at f/5.6 on a tripod. I cropped the image to remove a street lamp and light pillars from other light sources further in the distance.

02-Jan-2017: The crescent Moon between Mars and Venus

The toughest part was actually finding a spot around my block where there was less glare from street lights or annoying power and utility lines in view. Luckily I found a spot with two extinguished street lamps and setup in between.

A little earlier I quickly snapped the image below from the bedroom window on the 2nd floor. The sky wasn’t dark yet, and as the camera was hand-held, 1/4sec was the lowest I could go. Nevertheless with the rooftops in the foreground, it provides for a sense of scale and location in the sky. The orange-red horizon from the setting sun is a nice touch.

Moon with Venus and Mars in the evening sky

Venus and Crescent Moon

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Benoit Guertin

After three days of cloud cover and a good 20cm of snow, it was nice to see a clear and crisp sky throughout the day and into the evening. With the sun set and the sky still dark blue a crescent Moon and Venus made for a fine pair in the south-west sky for the first evening of 2017.

New Years 2017 Moon and Venus

The Moon will continue to travel towards Mars, located higher up and to the left (East) with a good photo opportunity on the 2nd (tomorrow) with the Moon between both planets. For the rest of January, Venus will gently move closer to Mars to within 6 degrees at the end of the month.

Photo Details:
Canon XTi (450D)
17mm F4 (1/10sec ISO400)
inset: 85mm F5.6 (1/10sec ISO800)

Easily Locate Neptune on December 31st

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Benoit Guertin

December 31st will be your opportunity to easily locate and observe Neptune with a telescope as it will be within 1/3 degree of Mars low in the western part of the Sky. Mars will present a reddish magnitude 1 disk while Neptune will be much smaller, essentially a dimmer magnitude 7.8 dot. Large telescopes should reveal the blueish hue of Neptune when placed slightly out of focus.

Neptune and Mars 1/3 degree – December 31 (1 degree circle)

In the image above I’ve marked magnitude 7.9 star just outside the 1 degree circle to assist in the orientation.

However don’t wait too late in the evening, best may be shortly after 7pm once the Moon is below the horizon. Starting from the horizon you’ll able to easily locate bright Venus and about 10 degrees above will be Mars and Neptune. Bright stars Fomalhaut and Altair will be located east and west along the horizon.

Neptune Mars and Venus setting in the West – December 31 (7pm)

Comets for 2017 [updated 16-APR-2017]

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Benoit Guertin

Below are some of the comets to keep a watch for in 2017 as they should be observable with small scopes and even binoculars.

45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
Currently observable low in the evening at around magnitude 8 and will continue to brighten to magnitude 7 in January and then fade rapidly, including a approach to within 0.08AU of Earth on February 11th, as well as passing within a few degrees of globular cluster M3 shortly after.
Photo from January 6th.

C/2016 U1 ( NEOWISE )
Currently observable at magnitude 9 and predicted to brighten to magnitude 7 in mid January. Discovered on October 21, 2016. Not visible in the southern hemisphere.

C/2015 V2 ( Johnson )
Faint at magnitude 12, and will continue to brighten until mid 2017, with good chances of observation.

C/2015 ER61 ( PanSTARRS )
Should brighten to magnitude 7 spring of 2017, unfortunately not very visible to the northern latitudes. However it will cross many NGC and Messier objects throughout the first half of the year.

2P/Encke
Expected to brighten to magnitude 6-7 around at the start of March, overall visible for about 45 days. For those in the northern hemisphere, best observations will be the end of February.

41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak
Expected to brighten to better than magnitude 6 in early April. A good opportunity for wide-field photo as it passes 5° of M92 at the end of April.
Photo from April 13th.

References:
Comet Chasing
Seiichi Yoshida’s Bright Comet Listing (and future listing)
Paper by the British Astronomical Association

December 25th – No Sunspots

Posted on December 25, 2016 by Benoit Guertin

The sun has been without sunspots for two days, but that is expected as we are heading to a minimum in the 11-year cycle.

Cycle 24 Sunspot Number (NASA)

Nevertheless as it was a nice afternoon grabbed the scope and did some observation of the sun. A little of a challenge to focus when there is no contrasting details to base yourself on.

December 25th 2016 – No Sunspots

Skywatcher 80ED
Canon XTi (450D) ISO 100 – 1/800sec
Thousand Oaks R-G Solar Film

Autumn – Darker Skies and No Mosquitos

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Benoit Guertin

I hadn’t taken the telescope out since April. With other projects and hobbies I just didn’t bother setting up the equipment. But a few nights ago looking at a dark blue evening sky I noticed a nice crescent Moon and a triangular star formation over the horizon. The kids weren’t in bed yet so I grabbed my gear and made a quick set-up for observation with the 80ED telescope.

After an observation of the Moon, spending time examining the lights and shadows across the lunar craters and valleys I looked at the triangular star formation and suspected that at least one was a planet. Slewed the telescope over and discovered Mars. Tried different eye pieces and settled for an Orion Edge-On 9mm planetary with Televue 2x Barlow.

With the kids off to bed I changed the set-up for webcam imaging before Mars could dip below the horizon. Follow up processing that evening wasn’t very rewarding. Mars is some distance with Earth therefore appeared rather small compared with other times I pointed the telescope and with the heavy atmospheric turbulence imaging at such a low altitude it blurred the scant details I could have captured.

But that evening I broke the ice and got the gear out. And since I’ve been enjoying the night sky when weather permits. With the galactic plane crossing the sky it’s a great time for wide angle shots. It’s also much faster to set-up and more forgiving to an incorrect polar alignment. I got three photo sessions to analyze and hope to have some good shots to show in the next few days.

Autumn, with cooler nights, dark skies and no mosquitos it’s prime time to enjoy the night sky.