Observing Report for 26 May/10

Location: Irving Nature Park

Time: 2145hrs-2330hrs

Conditions: 16 degrees Celsius, small breeze, partly cloudy

Attendance: Carla H., Mike P., David M.

Moon: 98% Full, 45 deg declination in the SE

Planets: Venus was very bright, near full in phase to the west. Mars was west of Saturn just below Leo, all in the SW.

Observations: Moon was too bright for deep sky object observing. Even the normally bright stars were dim as were Mars and Saturn. I wanted to look for asteroid Vesta 4 in Leo(mag 6), but ran out of time. There was just too many things to look at and so much to talk about!

By the time I got set up a huge black cloud covered Venus, which I wanted to look at first, as it is the first thing to go down in the west. When it wasn't covered, Venus showed like a huge light.

Obtained many pictures of the Moon. Once again, special thanks to Mike P. of the Saint John Astronomy Club for letting me use his camera adapter. The adapter made taking pictures much easier and allowed me to focus in on specific features of the Moon. The hand mounted method for taking pictures works, but requires a very steady hand and a certain amount of luck.

Was able to get some pics of the whole Moon, close-ups of Tycho the 85 mile wide crater which is in the South part of the Moon, and some mountain ranges at the terminus.

There was so much to look at, I could have stayed much longer.