THUNDER BAY CENTRE RASC

A REPORT FROM JOHN BAKKELUND (MARCH 3,2001)

The Bull's-eye and the Sunrise ray, a Lunar observation Report

On the evening of March 3 it was clear so I went outside for a little lunar observing to see if I could spot a certain feature that I've tried to view a couple of times, so far without success. This is the crater Hesiodus A. It is a small crater with an odd double concentric ring wall, almost like a bull's-eye. It lies next to the main crater Hesiodus which is beside Pitatus which is beside the Mare Nubium. Pitatus itself is quite interesting,it is a flooded walled plain, about 100km across, with a system of clefts on it's floor. Hesiodus A lies around 17* West and earlier I had found the position of the terminator on my lunar co-longitude program to be at 19* West ( for 10:30PM EST) so I had hoped this would be around the right position for observing the "bull's-eye" crater. Although this program tells you the position of the terminator very accurately it does not tell you how the shadows will fall. It was not quite the right position after all since a great part of the interior of Hesiodus A was in shadow. Also the seeing was terrible and 80x was a much as I could manage. I'll have to try that one again! However, I did notice something peculiar in the larger crater Hesiodus. It too was in shadow except for a narrow beam of light across it's dark floor coming through a breach in the wall of Petavius. A single ray of light like a searchlight bisected the dark crater floor,it looked very cool! All of a sudden this rang a bell because I remember reading an article about this a few years ago in Sky & Telescope magazine. I watched this unique and fascinating play of light and shadow for a while but my views were limited by the bad seeing so after a while I gave up and went inside to look up the old article. (My basement is full of old magaziness which occasionally come in handy) I found it too, it's called The Sunrise Ray in Hesiodus, and it's in the July 1996 Sky.& Tel. page 74. When I first read about this I had been very interested but never managed to catch it under the right conditions but last Saturday I finally got to see it, allbeit by accident. The original observation was done with the terminator at 18.4* west so there seems to be a bit of flexibility of the posititon of the terminator. Anyhow, I shall certainly watch for again next month and hopefully the seeing will be better and I will be abled to use some higher magnifications to examine this curiousity more fully.

John K Bakkelund , 3/6/2001

Lunar Links

Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers:

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/

The Hitchikers Guide to the Moon:

http://www.shallowsky.com/moon/hitchhiker.html

Exploring the Moon by Charles Wood:

http://www.space.edu/moon/

Inconstant Moon:

http://www.inconstantmoon.com/

A REPORT FROM KEVIN GARNER (NOVEMBER 26,2000)

Hi all! Just thought I would drop a small note on some planetary observations. Jupiter & Saturn were awesome tonight (Nov. 26). I went out around 01:00 UTC and focused in on Jupiter. I wanted to catch the transit of Europa and it's shadow. I was unsuccesful spotting Europa itself, however, the shadow was easily spotted. Although seeing was not the best I was able to count 5 bands with my 4" F/10 Newstar refractor in moments of steady seeing. It looks like the SEB is split across it's length with a light zone right now. Has anyone else noted this? I then went on to Saturn and easily spotted one belt and a darkened pole. The Cassini division was also easily resolved all the way around, as well as the shadow of the rings. I generally stuck with my 10mm Plossl for 100X and my 8mm Vixen Super wide (125X with 68deg FOV). At about 04:00 UTC things started frosting up on me. I knew it was going to happen with the dew point getting ever closer to the ambient, it was only a matter of time. The clear skies this weekend were definately a welcome change, although seeing was messed up by the high humidity which made for two fairly short observing sessions. I'll take what I can get though in November. The night ended very nicely with a fine display of Aurora. I was getting my gear together to take into the house and looked up.. and there they were, the Northern Lights. What better way to pack up and end an evening of fine planetary observing. Clear Skies Kevin Garner RASC, Thunder Bay

A REPORT FROM DOUG STUART (NOVEMBER 18, 2000)

Hello all! Despite being restricted to observing within a 40 degree wide "sucker hole" that seemed to be centred around the "millennium Diamond", I observed 51 Leonid meteors over a period of an hour and a half. There were 19 fireballs. The brightest was about -10 Mag.! Observations were made from 2:35am EST to 4:10am, November 18th. Doug

A REPORT FROM JOHN BAKKELUND

Hi everyone : Bob T and I were also up from 3:00 to 4:00 AM and we observed about 42 meteors with many bright ones but no fireballs. It must have been a pretty decent shower because only half the sky was visible so the estimates of around a 100/hour seem to have been pretty accurate. Saturday had one very brief sucker hole that didn't even give me time to run and get my binoculars. John

A REPORT FROM DOUG STUART (SEPTEMBER 24, 2000)

Now is the time the get out those solar filters! The largest sunspot structure in 9 years, is visible dead centre on the solar disk! Great target for photos and sketches. Doug

A REPORT FROM KEVIN GARNER (JULY 3,2000)

Hi all! After reading some of the RASCals LINEAR S4 reports as well as Doug's, I thought I would take a shot at looking at this comet. I was out observerving last night from 23:00 on till 03:30 local looking at the likes of M22, M4, and the other usual goodies for this time of year and figured at 3:00 local the comet should easily be visible. It was! I found it directly above M34 by about 2 degrees. There was definitly a nice coma with a faint but noticable tail. I first looked at it with my 32mm (31.25X) and it was easily spotted. I pushed it up to 50X which seemed to be the best view with my 4" F/10. It was still easy to look at with my 13mm (77X). But at 100X there wasn't much left to see due to lack of brightness, so I did not try with the 8mm SuperWide. I figure it at about Mag 8 to 9 (Just a guess though). So if you want to get a look at it with a small scope it is easy to spot and seems to look best at 50X. The reports in Sky and Telesope show it to be brightest July 21st, and be better positioned for earlier veiwing. I guess we'll have to wait and see if S4 brightens up according to prediction. Clear Skies Kevin Garner

A REPORT FROM DOUG STUART (JUNE 28,2000)

Greeting fellow observers. After reading a post on the RASCals list about a possible observation on Comet LINEAR S4 with a 12.5 inch scope, I decided to have a look for it myself. I went out with my 10 Dobsonian at 3:20am this morning. By 3:30am I had found Comet LINEAR S4 from within the City and literally from under the glare of the streetlight! I used my 26mm eyepiece which gives me 44x to find the Comet. I tried various eyepieces, but I found the best view to be with my 9.4mm which gives me 118x. The Comet has a distinct fuzzy head and a faint yet discernible tail. The fact the it had a tail and the fact that it was exactly where the tracking diagram said it should be, convinces me that I found it. :) I won't venture a guess about its magnitude, however I doubt that its a binocular object yet. Unless you have a dark sky and giant binoculars. I will be watching this Comet as it brightens. I would also like to hear about your observations of this Comet. Doug Stuart Thunder Bay

A REPORT FROM KEVIN GARNER (JUNE 3,2000)

I Just recieved my new Vixen Lanthanum Wide Angle 8mm (65 deg A.F.) eyepiece in the mail on Wednesday. Of course, as Murphy's Law goes "New Eyepiece for scope equals bad weather, rendering any new telescope goodies unusable" and indeed it clouded up at about 20:00 local. Finally got it out on Fri. June 2. This is an exceptional eyepiece. I first turned it to Polaris to see it's faint companion. It showed up no problem. Nice and bright! Then it was on to Izar in Bootes. I was able to split that cleanly at 125x. Normally I need my 13mm Teluvue Plossl and 2x barlow in my 4" f/10 refractor to split that (about 150x). Also went on to the "Double Double" in Lyra, again no problem resolving that. It was especially nice in this ocular thanks to the wide F.O.V. and nice eye relief. All stars are bright and clear right out to the edges. Albireos' blue and yellow colors showed beautifully. But the thing that suprised me most was the Great globular of M13 in Hercules. It was spectacular! I thought I would lose resolution and contrast because of the fairly high power (125x) but that was not the case. I could not believe the amount of stars which resolved to nice pinpoints against the black background. So because of this view I went on to the globular clusters of M92 (in Hercules) and M5 (in Serpens Caput). They to, did not dissapoint. M5 seems to explode into many pinpoints of light just like M13. M92 is a much more tightly packed globular cluster, but I still was able to resolve some outer stars. I finally ended the trial run on M57, It was also wonderfully bright against a nice black starfield. All this was done in fairly good skies (6/10) from my suburban back yard. The only real gripe about this eyepiece is the weight. It is quite hefty and requires a slight weight adjustment on the scope but that is to be expected from any of the new Wide-Angles. Clear Skies!

A REPORT FROM JOHN BAKKELUND (MAR 12,2000)

On Sunday, March 12th, the sky was beautifully clear so went outside to do a little moongazing. My backyard is not the greatest for observing but on this occasion the first quarter moon was perfectly placed so that I could observe it with my six inch Dob. From just inside the garage door where I am shielded from wind and stray light. I was also motivated to try out a set of colour filters my sweet wife had given me for Xmas. After my first look through the eyepiece I had a pleasant shock. The air was rock steady ! I get so use to mediocre or poor seeing that it's always a suprise when it's good. So of course I immediatly started bumping up the magnification, 200x was good, 300x still pretty good, 500x is too much for my scope but the seeing still only had a slow motion movement where it was still possible to see detail. Yahoo ! So I played around in the more comfortable 250x power range looking at the Triesnecker and Hyginus rilles and the Alpine Valley and various craters. The shadows of the crater rims looked etched. I then tried out a # 8 yellow filter. Ther was a slight increase in contrast of the lunar maria and a definite sharpening up of detail, especially in the rilles. Next I tried a # 15 orange, it was darker and had a very interesting contrast effect on the maria and a similar effect on sharpness increase on the rilles. I also tried green and blue filters on the moon but did not notice any particular advantage to them on the moon. I have yet to try them on the planets though.

CLUB OSBSERVING SITE CONDITIONS (Feb. 23,2000)

WHITE LILY LAKE (John's site)

Still snowed in. Passable in a 4WD but not recomended especially at night !

PACE LAKE ROAD (Ed's site)

Road is open, in fact completly bare. Watch for trucks since they are hauling wood. The parking lot in front of the site is clear and suitable for observing until the concrete pad observing spot melts off. It still has about 20cm. of snow. I shovelled off a little 3mx3m patch to encourage melting on the pad.

CENTRAL AVENUE (Dave's site)

This is in town so obviously is clear for snow but I'm happy to say they have not installed street lights here yet !

A REPORT FROM KEVIN GARNER (Feb 23,2000)

I thought that I would like to contribute some notes about Jupiter. I would first like to say that if you want to enjoy Saturn and Jupiter, now is the time. Seeing that the days are getting longer and these two gas giants will soon be slipping lower and lower to the west making viewing more difficult. We still have a bit of time however to look at them while they are still fairly high. I have received a 4" refractor for Christmas from Santa ( I suspect my wife got it for me though!) and have been enjoying Jupiter for the last 2 months. My best night out was on Feb. 7/00. I got set up at 19:00 local time, dropped in my 10mm Plossl(which gets me 100x), and sat at the eyepiece. Good seeing and transparency prevailed. The best part was that it was -12c. Excellent conditions! Things that I saw were the many dark belts, (5 for sure and a 6th once in awhile, probably due to atmosheric conditions), the bright zones in between, and, by far the best part, catching a glimpse of the Great Red Spot. I had been following the guides for the transit times of the spot but was unsucessful of a really good siting until this date. Patience and effort do have their rewards. It was worth the many attempts. It was, however, quite pale but very distinct. This is what makes watching Jupiter such fun because the color and brightness of the spot will change over the years so it keeps you coming back for a look. When you take a look at Jupiter also notice the details in the two largest belts and the bright zone between them. It is fascinating to watch the changes of these areas over time. I usually spend 2 to 2.5 hours at the scope to watch the cloud deck of the jovian atmoshere getting churned up. And don't forget the nightly dance of the moons. That is just as fun to watch and can be watched with binoculars. Saturn of course needs no introduction. When you first glimpse it with a scope the site is one you will never forget. All I can say is "Wonderful!!". Again I will look at it for up to two hours but haven't noticed any real distinct bands or zones. So if you haven't got a look at these two planets yet get out there soon and enjoy! Clear Skies!