A group of us took advantage of a late day break in the clouds to head out to Binbrook for some observing just as the initial sliver of the new moon was just dipping below the horizon.

Tim and Therese were out visiting after a day running around Waterloo and then dinner with Mike. Tim didn’t bring any equipment, but he was providing sage guidance to Therese about the pros and cons of the various equipment that was set up. I quickly set up my binoculars and we were able to observe several of Jupiter’s moons. Tim and I could only make 2, but Therese’s keen eyes were able to resolve one of the points into 2 distinct moons (later confirmed in the scopes). With her sharp eyes, she’s going to make a great observer.

I didn’t bring along any of my little green friends from Fri night at the Parks Canada Discovery Centre, but Jackie was busy entertaining the local furry residents. The raccoons housed in a tree near our observing site appeared to be fascinated by her shiny cases and camera. One was even bold enough to come right to her feet. Judging by the way she jumped, I got the distinct impression that Jackie wasn’t quite as enamoured with the raccoons as they were with her. Being the shy wallflower that she is, she didn’t want to be the center of attention for the local fauna so relocated a little further away, into the midst and the safety of other observers. Dispite the disruptions of the animals, she’s a real trooper and returned to trying out her new XTi on her great little 80mm APO. We also had a great serenade by the coyotes for a little while, but they chose not to venture quite as closely.

Kerry meanwhile was busy snapping away at Comet Linear. It looked like she was able to get quite a few good shots. They’ll be something to look forward to once she gets them posted. She also noted a couple of smaller NGC galaxies in the area. I think she also managed to grab a few Messiers amongst all the shots she took. She was well set up with her C6, 80mm APO and Canon 300D.

After struggling with getting my Mak set up, I was finally able to start doing some observing. With Tim and Therese, I initially spent my time looking at some more conventional objects like Jupiter, M57 and a few other clusters. Later, thanks to coordinates provided by Kerry and after several re-alignment attempts, I was able to get Linear into view. A lot larger in the 7″ f/15 Mak than had been observed Fri night with the 100mm f/5 richfield, but alas still no observable tail. As midnight approached, I tried for Neptune and Uranus. Neptune never resolved into a disk, but its blue-green colour was evident. Regrettably Uranus was obstructed by trees East from our location.

After granting us a few good hours of observing, the weather gods decided it was time to bring the clouds back shortly after midnight. We were fortunate to have our dew shields with us as well since some dew was beginning to form. Those that had been imaging switched over to viewing to take in a few more objects before we were forced to leave for the night. Finally by around 1am we packed up and headed off to pleasant dreams of a fine night observing under the great skies of the Binbrook Conservation Area.

Update By KerryLH :

I had a real nice time… I got to see Neptune for the first time thanks to Don. It was funny how the racoons were so intersted in Jackie and her equipment; I guess they like shiny new things just like astronomers. Anyway my main goal was to capture comet Linear. After finding the RA and Dec coordinates on Carte du Ciel (free astro software) I plugged it into the keypad of my CG5-GT mount and several seconds later there it was in the middle of the eyepiece on my 80mm scope. I managed to take several images which I stacked manually in Photoshop. I’ll try a re-process of it later to get rid of the noise. Since the comet was touring through a cluster of galaxies I ended up capturing NGC5689 and NGC5676(in the widefield shot). You can sort of make out NGC5689 to the right of the comet. It looks like a small edge on spiral.

Comet VZ13 Linear
By Kerry

M101 second attempt
By Kerry

UPDATE by Jackie

I was very excited to get out to Binbrook Sunday night with my new Canon Digital SLR XTi and apo scope. The sky was beautiful at dusk and I captured Venus, working on my focusing:

My first Widefield view was of Jupiter and the constellation Scorpius, still working on the focusing (a little post-processing added the constellation lines):

Binbrook, Canon XTi 55mm @F/2.8 ISO 1600, 1 sec (unfocused)

I love the camera! I have bought a T-adapter so I can take close-up shots through the telescope. Watch me now!

– Jackie