If the weather cooperates (and it rarely seems to), there will be an nice conjunction at sunset on Sun 26 April 2009.

Just after sunset while it is still twilight, the Moon, Mercury and the Pleiades will be visible within a binocular field of view near Taurus. The Moon will be a whisper thin crescent, just coming out of new Moon and should be visible first (look for possible Earth shine on the “dark” side). The Mercury will pop out as a 1st magnitude “star”, and then the Pleiades star cluster will appear. (sky map shown below)

(Taken from NASA website)

If you have a telescope set up, then you may be able to resolve Mercury into a crescent. But because it is nearing its relative maximum elongation (at the end of the month) as seen from Earth, it will be a fuller crescent than the Moon.

You don’t even need a telescope or dark skies to enjoy this event. Just a clear view to the western horizon. Your eyes are enough to appreciate this presentation. But binos or a scope will always be quite welcome to help enhance the view of the terminator on the sliver Moon. And of course they will reveal hundreds of stars in the Pleiades instead of the 6 or 7 we can see from within the city with just your eyes. Always a beautiful sight.

This isn’t a particularly rare event, but it is infrequent. So try and take advantage of it while you can. If the skies are cloudy on Sun, you could try again on Mon 27 Apr, but the moon will be slightly larger and further away. Still worth the view.

Reminder:
RaptorFest is this Sat 25 Apr (10am to 4pm) and the HAA will be present during the day with some scopes, binoculars and information about astronomy and the HAA. Come out to lend a hand or just give your support.

Details can be found here: RaptorFest

Update Tue 28 Apr 2009
Well the weather didn’t cooperate on Sun as expected, but I did get some clearing on Mon evening. The clouds were coming in from the west before Mercury and the Pleiades became visible, but at least I was able to capture the 2 day old crescent moon. Here’s a scaled down image.

2 day old crescent moon.

NGC 4565 by Bob Christmas

I posted some of the astrophotos I took up at Spectacle Lake in mid-April on my personal website (Click on the title).

Look for the thumbnail pictures labelled “new”. Click on any thumbnail to enlarge.

Bob Christmas

Well, right now there’s a beautiful occultation of Venus happening, but all I see are clouds.

A few hours ago my alarm went off and somehow I knew before I stepped outside that it was going to be clear. The air just had that feel to it. And sure enough, there was a sky that was just dark enough to show Arcturus in the west and Vega high overhead. Looking to the east I noticed Jupiter first, shining very brightly, and then, still behind some trees, I spotted Venus and the Moon in the predawn sky. Lovely!

I set us my scope and turned it to Jupiter first. The air didn’t seem too steady and although it showed four moons and some bands, the view wasn’t great. Perhaps the scope needed a few minutes to cool down (ah, the beauty of a small scope; it really does only need a few minutes and not hours like some larger scopes) but I wouldn’t get a second look at Jupiter because already the clouds were coming in from the southwest.

Turning to the main event, I was able to get both the Moon and Venus in my wide field eyepiece at the same time. Both showed the same crescent phase and this symmetry certainly added to the aesthetic value of the view.

The Moon approaches Venus (in the larger image you can see the crscent phase of Venus clearly)

Most noticable was how much brighter Venus was than the moon. This shouldn’t be surprising since Venus’s albedo (surface reflectivity) is around .7 (making it one of the brightest objects in the solar system) and the moon’s albedo is .12 (making it one of the darkest). Still, it was interesting to see it demonstrated so clearly in the eyepiece.

Unfortunately, those clouds just kept on coming, and true to the forecast the sky was completely cloud covered before the occultation started. It is now fully daylight and fully overcast. I’m sure the HAA has proven to be one of the more active groups around when it comes to grazing occultation expeditions, even though many of us have yet to actually see even one! Like Ann said, at least we’re consistent. See you at the next one!

Maybe next time!

The weather forecast is looking rather marginal, but there may be a chance to view this rare occultation event.

Starting just after 9am on the morning of Wed 22 Apr, the thin crescent Moon will pass in front of (occult) Venus. Even though it is daytime, both objects are bright enough they should be visible. If you can take some time off from work or school, you might want to try this. You won’t need any special equipment, your eyes are all you need. But if you have binoculars or a small telescope, they will make the sight more impressive. They will also allow you to see Venus as a crescent instead of just bright dot.

Caution: Since the sun will be up, please be very careful not to point your binoculars or your scope at the sun as this may cause permanent eye damage.

Ideally you might like to set up before sunrise so that you can more easily locate the Moon and Venus. But the forecast is indicating rain and clouds even at 5am. However there may be a break just around 9am which may allow us to see this event. Unfortunately I can’t tell at this time if during the breaks, we’ll have lots of high cirrus clouds which will block or obscure the view.

I’ve included a map below which shows the area which will experience the occultation. We are smack dab in the middle of the green lines. This means that we will see some of Venus covered by the Moon (Grazing Occultation). The light of Venus should brighten and dim as it passes behind the mountains and valleys on the Moon. If you are NW of the Green/Black line combination, then the entire surface of Venus will be covered (standard occultation). If you are SE of the single Green line, then you will see the Moon pass over top of Venus without being covered (conjunction).

Venus Moon Occultation Path

Here’s a link to the page with the interactive Google map. This will allow you to zoom in or out as much as you want to find the best area.
Interactive Map

The Moon will approach Venus starting at about 9am. First contact should occur at about 9:10am. And the entire event will take about 10-15 minutes.

Sky and Telescope also has some info about this event.

To view this, it is best to find a open area with a good view to the East and South. Possibly a large park or shopping mall lot. If the conditions look promising, I’m going to try and set up at Lakeland Community Centre at 180 Van Wagners Beach Rd in Hamilton (east of the GoKarts).

Try to locate the crescent Moon first – it will be about 33degrees to the upper right of the Sun. Then look a little to the lower left of the moon and you should be able to spot the bright light from Venus.

Meteor Shower:
And also remember, if you get up early enough and the sky does open up for you, be on the look out for members of the Lyrid meteor shower which are peaking in the early morning as well. Unfortunately you are not likely to see these once the sun rises.

Good luck and good hunting.

As mentioned earlier by Chair Steve, on Saturday, April 25, in Winona, from 10am to 4pm, there’s the annual RaptorFest festival. Some members of the HAA will be there with a daytime astronomy display. (Solar observing, and telescope and binocular demonstrations).

The binocular demonstration will be of special interest to bird watchers in that binoculars allow good views of distant nests to be shared.

Since it is also the dark of the moon, there may be an evening observing session at a location to be determined.

Here’s a link to the Raptorfestival web site:

http://www.raptorfestival.com

Directions can be found here:

http://www.raptorfestival.com/Html%20Pages/Directions.html

For members who wish to set up equipment, the gate should be open by 9am. We’ll be on the back (south facing) side of the building under the overhang.

Hope to see you there.

I posted three of my images on my HAA Gallery from my trip up north last week (April 2009). Links are below.

M81 and M82, by Bob Christmas

Galaxies M81, M82, NGC 2976 and NGC 3077 (excerpt shown above),

M101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy),

and Open clusters M46 and M47.

More images are coming soon to my own web site. Stay tuned.

Bob Christmas

11 people showed up last night for observing at the main site. We set up at the boat launch with 3 scopes on the dock and 2 in the parking area. The early arrivals where treated to a view of Mercury before it set. This, for me, was the last planet of the system to view through my scope.The rest of the night was spent helping knock the bugs out of a temperamental goto scope for one of our newer members, and sharing views of the night sky with the enthusiastic gathering. It was a fun time with several of us reconvening at Tim H. for coffee and conversation.

I arrived at Spectacle Lake Lodge on Tuesday, April 14, and I have had 3 clear nights under a dark sky. I have taken lots of images of several deep sky objects, including the open clusters M35, M36, M37, M38, M46 and M47, as well as galaxies M81, M82, M98, M99, M100, M108, NGC 2403, NGC 4214, NGC 4244 and NGC 4565. I will be posting some images soon.

One interesting thing happened when I imaged M38 in Auriga on Tuesday night (the 14th; see image below). I noticed a faint green fuzzy right beside M38, just to the left of the cluster (see image). It turns out, this was Comet Cardinal!

I knew this comet was in the general area, but I didn’t know beforehand that it was right beside M38. Talk about a stroke of luck! Comet Cardinal is very faint however, about 11th magnitude. By the way, if you have a BIG scope, or if you take a long image exposure, you might be able to catch it tonight (Friday April 17) when it’s right beside M36, another open cluster in Auriga.

If you check the main page of our website and look at the Clear Sky Charts for Hamilton and Binbrook, you will notice that we have very good observing conditions for tonight.

While nothing is being formally organized, we encourage any member to use the Alternate observing location on Tyneside Rd. There is a good parking area and park land available for setting up scopes and binoculars. There is pretty good visibility in most directions.

Here’s a map to the location: Tyneside

There are usually several observers at this location on any night that conditions are good, so you are likely to run into members or other astronomers that aren’t members.

One note of caution for personal safety though. This is an area open to the public. We have never heard of any problems from observers in this area, and many have used this alone or in small numbers, but bring along a cell phone in case of emergency. And it’s a good idea to go with another observer. You might consider holding off setting up equipment until another arrives – which is almost certain to happen. It’s great opportunity to get to know some other astronomers in our area.

Please feel free to take advantage of what is bound to be great seeing conditions tonight. And if you do go out, please post a note about your observing on the blog or email our observing director. observing@amateurastronomy.org

Over the weekend while you were all enjoying a lovely Easter dinner (I hope), I was enjoying a lovely night sky, and had some good observing. The Clear Sky Clock looks good for tonight, so I am hoping for more galaxies and double stars!

Jackie, Jim and I will be at the Alternate Site tonight for some warm spring sky observing. Join us and others there if you can, and remember, the alternate site is accessible to all members so show up whenever you like and we’ll see you there!

As always, email me if you have any questions, reports, observations or photos. observing@amateurastronomy.org