Observations made in the constellation Cancer

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Observations made in the constellation Cancer:

Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -3, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Mark D. Schneider (e-mail: markd_s@yahoo.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: Orange, California, United States of America
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Jun 5 03:37:00 2022 UT   Obs. no.: 1

Despite looming clouds in the South, the ISS passed from NW and under another waxing crescent Moon in this clear sky.

Sun (Sun, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 62-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jun 30 14:15:00 2021 UT   Obs. no.: 2271

This morning, I observed sunspot group AR2835 with my solar telescope. This groups has a large sunspot & several little spots with with lots of facula around the whole sunspot complex. It's a really impressive view.

This morning, I observed the sun with my solar telescope. AR2835 are two fairly large sunspots that are side by side. They are widely separated even though they are in the same group.

Venus (Planet, est. mag `3.9, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Jun 16 00:55:00 2018 UT   Obs. no.: 2058

This evening I observed the close meeting of the crescent moon & Venus. Some earthshine was showing on the moon also.

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 18-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Branford, Connecticut, United States
Time: Sun Apr 22 01:00:00 2018 UT Obs. no.: 2051

This evening, my brother Anthony & I went to a local star party. Even though the moon was a waxing crescent, we were able to have good views of 6 galaxies. We started with M104, The Sombreros Galaxy. Its dust lane cut right across the galaxy. Next we viewed M51 & its companion galaxy that is merging with it. We were able to see the spiral effect of M51. Next, we viewed M81 & M82 at the same time. The dust lanes on M82 were very obvious & the spiral effect on M81 was impressive. Finally, we viewed M63 & saw a great dust lane going through that also. M44 The Beehive Open Cluster was the best thing I saw tonight. We also viewed M13, M92, M42, Venus & the moon itself. It was a nice night.

Sun (Sun, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 62-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Jul 9 16:20:00 2017 UT   Obs. no.: 2011

This afternoon, I observed the sun with my Sun SpotterSolar Telescope. A new sunspot AR2665 has formed & it looks very active. I'm hoping for some northern lights.

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Apr 19 01:00:00 2017 UT   Obs. no.: 2005

This evening, my brother Anthony & I viewed open clusters M41,44,35,36,37.38 & 67 with our 5" MAK. M44 was the best out of all the open clusters we looked at. We also saw one of Jupiter's moons right after it emerged from behind Jupiter. We also viewed a few galaxies but the view was not good for them.

Early this morning I observed M44 the Bee Hive Cluster with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Televue Eyepiece. The Bee Hive was a beautiful sight in both my telescope and my 10X50 binoculars. But on this day the Bee Hive had a special guest. The planet Mars was sitting on the edge of M44. One of the Bee Hive stars sat very close to Mars to add to the effect. When I aimed my scope at Mars I was able to see its northern ice cap with little difficulty. On the morning of Nov. 3rd Mars will still be embedded in the cluster so anyone will still have a chance to see Mars in the Bee Hive.

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 20-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sat May 24 01:00:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1786

This evening my friends Steve Borer, Rob Massau and I went to a local star party to view several Messier objects through a 20" dob. The first object we observed was M44 the Beehive Cluster. This cluster had a very special guest called Mars on its northern edge. One of the cluster stars was very close to Mars and this combination looked like a close binary star. We observed two globular clusters, M4 and M13. M13 showed numerous individual stars and it was quite spectacular. Many stars were also seen in M4. M57 the Ring Nebula surprised us by showing us its interior star. It's very hard to see M57's interior star but conditions were perfect for us to see it. We also observed three galaxies, M81, M82 and M104. We were able to see the spiral effect of M81 and and the dust lanes of both M82 and M104. They were both easy to see. We also trained our scope on Saturn. We were able to see a belt of Saturn and the shadow cast on Saturn's rings by the planet. We then were treated to a fine view of the ISS as it passed by at about -.5 magnitude. Finally when we were on the way home we saw Jupiter and the moon rising together in the southeastern sky. What a great night we had!

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 35-mm binoculars   Location: Stratford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: poor   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri May 23 02:00:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1785

This evening my friends Steve Borer, Mike Dzubaty and I observed Mars entering the Beehive Cluster. All we had with us was 7X35 binoculars but we were able to see Mars sitting on the east side of M44. On Friday night Mars will be on the north side of M44 and I will have better binoculars to observe this event.

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 18-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Apr 21 01:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1639

This evening my friend Steve Borer and I joined about 30 other people from our group The Astromomical Society Of New Haven for an informal star party at a Milford Ct. beach. The first object that we looked at was the crescent moon. The earth shine was very bright and to our surprise, we were able to see Aristarchus crater and its ray even though it was deeply imbedded in the earthshine. Next we visited Venus which is still a waning cresent at about 55- 60%. The cloud deck had some darker patches in it but they were subtle. When we turned the 18" dob on Saturn, we saw four moons. There was one band that was visible on the planet. Everyone including the children were all stunned by the Orion Nebula despite its being low in the western sky. We tried to split two double stars with the 18" dob. Sirius proved to be too low in the sky to be able to be split but Polaris was a tight but comfortable seperation. We observed two galaxies M104 and M82. M104 was disapointing and we were not able to see its dust lanes but M82 showed quite well and we could see its many dust lanes quite easily. With a 40mm eyepiece in the 18' dob. we viewed M44 the behive cluster. This was a truly great object to observe. We were able to see small groupings of stars within the entire cluster. Believe me when I say this was my greatest view of the behive I've ever had. All in all it was a great get together among friends.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.1, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Mar 30 01:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1516

Viewed Saturn last night during the first pristine night in a long long time. A very distinguishable cloud band was apparent as well as the Cassinni Division. Apparent disk size was 19.1 arcseconds. Following advice on how to stack images from another site, I successfully got a few shots with the Meade LPI. I was completely blown away! I have posted the shots. They are magazine quality.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Mar 8 01:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1507

Beautiful conditions last night allowed me to view Saturn with excellent results. Through binoviewers at 142x, the Cassinni Division was visible. Though there was some turbulence, it remained for spurts of 5 seconds or so before disappearing for 2 to 3 seconds at a time. Also visible was a single thick equatorial belt and 5 moons. I was able to snap a series of pictures with my LPI and have posted the best one on my website. Though the equatorial belt is slightly visible, NO picture can ever capture the breathtaking views of the real thing.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.1, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Feb 9 23:15:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1489

This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. The big storm that was very close to the south polar cap now seems to be weakening. Even with the yellow filter, I couln't see much of the storm. However, because of the good seeing, I did observe two belts on Saturn. I think the big storm will be gone very soon now that it is abating.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Feb 6 23:15:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1487

This evening, I decided to try to observe the big storm on Saturn's south pole with my 127mm MAK. The storm, which was discovered by my friend Joe Caggiano, is located almost on the south pole of Saturn. With a bright yellow planetary filter, I was able to see a very large bright area not quite on the south pole. It looked like a martian polar ice cap on Saturn. This storm looked to be a third as large as the huge storm I saw on Saturn around 1994. anyone with a yellow planetary filter will have the best chance to see the storm. Earlier, just before sunset I was able to see a huge sun pillar shooting straight up from the setting sun. Also my morning observation of the sun showed no sunspots what so ever.

This evening, I observed M44, The Beehive Cluster with my 127mm MAK. I observed that most of the stars in the cluster are yellow, and some of the stars look pale blue to me. There are several double and triple star systems in the cluster that are widely seperated. I couldn't find any close binary systems in the cluster.

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed May 11 00:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1234

Started around 6:30 EST to check out the sun. Viewing at various powers between 30x and 75x I viewed Sunspot group 759 and 763. Group 763 looked like a group of about 3 dozen "tiny" sunspots (Mrcury sized?) spread out like a small island chain. Group 759 appeared as a single large sunspot whose penumbra nearly tripled the size of the umbra. I could pick up intrcate detail in this large sunspot. Afterwards I waited about an hour and a half to view the moon. Viewing at 30x and 75x the detail was astounding. I caught a rift on the face of the moon just off the termination line. It looked like a fault line in the moon's crust that can only be seen during this phase. Viewing some of the southern craters and mountains at over 200x always leaves me speechless. Around 8:37, Saturn blinked into view. Viewing tionight was not as good as the previous nights. There was a thin haze in the upper atmosphere so that viewing at 203x was difficult to see the Cassinni Division. I caught both Rhea and Titan, but because of the haze 2 other moons kept blinking in and out of view. Jupiter's view was not much better. All 4 Galilean moons were visible with Calipso in a WIDE orbit...possibly 10 Jovian diameters from the planet itself. I had to pan the scope in order to catch it at 203x. ALl that was visible on Jupiter was the 2 equatorial belts and the South Polar Zone. The north looked all beige. Tried for various galaxies again in the Coma region just off the tail of Leo, but the First Quarter moon drowned out everything in the area. Decided to end my night looking off of Gemini to spot M44 star clusted. Beautiful at low power I only caught about half as many stars as I should have due to the haze. Still impressive though.

M44 (Praesepe) (Open Cluster, in Cancer)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.astroclubul.org/emilneata)
Instrument: 60-mm refractor   Location: Craiova, Romania
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Jan 25 00:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1156

M 44 (Praesepe cluster) - Easily seen with the naked eye. Through the telescope I've seen a huge number of stars, arranged in the shape of an isosceles triangle.

Comet (Comet, est. mag 4.0, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri May 21 01:00:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1000

Tonight, my friends Dave, Steve, Mike and I took another look at Comet Neat with our binoculars. The comet is still a very easy binocular target. Its brightness has faded only slightly but its size has seemed to shrink by about 25% as the comet continues to recede from the earth. We can still see a short tail on the comet.

Comet (Comet, est. mag 3.5, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 13.1-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Mon May 17 01:00:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 997

Last night, my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I Looked at Comet neat in Mike's 13.1" dob. We had no trouble seeing a very short dust tail and a much longer gas tail. It was an outstanding view. Inside the comets head, there was a bright starlike point. It was surrounded by a large area of fuzziness. We also observed M13, M51, M57, M4, M65, and M66.

Moon (Moon, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 102-mm refractor   Location: Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Wed Mar 3 03:15:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 958

I joined my friend Tony Donnangelo at his residence on Tuesday night to observe the Clausius Sunrise Ray (see http://www.lunar-occultations.com/rlo/rays/rays.htm for information on lunar light rays) through his 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromat. As it turned out the prediction time of 01:03 UT (8:03 p.m. EST) proved to be incorrect. Clausius was still on the dark side of the terminator hours after that time and so we never saw even the onset of the ray. But my trip was not far from wasted since Tony and I both discovered new lunar light rays! About 03:15 UT Tony noticed a short ray in the crater Mersenius P near Gasendi (Rukl chart 51). At 3:40 UT I came across a double ray near Schiller. One ray cut through Noggerah J at approximately 50.75 degrees north, 48 degrees west (Rukl chart 70). Another lay just to the south and east of the first and to the west of Noggerah H. With time these rays lengthened and were quite a sight to behold.As we were watching the progress of these rays the Moon occulted one field star and later another. I believe these stars were Omega Cancri (5.9 magnitude) and 4 Cancri (6.3 magnitude).We had a brief look at Jupiter and then turned the Tak back to the Moon before calling it quits at 05:00 UT. During the course of our observing session we used magnifications of 117 (7mm Nagler type 6), 158 (5.2mm Pentax SMC XL), and 234x (3.5mm Orion Lanthanum Superwide).Dave Mitsky

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.2, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 11-inch refractor   Location: Lancaster, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Tue May 20 02:00:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 814

On the evening of May 19th, 2003, I had the opportunity to watch a shadow transit by Io through an 1884 vintage 11" Clark refractor during a public observing session at the Grundy Observatory. The observatory is located on the Baker Campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is open to the public on the third Monday of each month, weather permitting.I also happened to catch Io as it emerged from transiting Jupiter. Later Jerry McClune, the telescope operator, allowed me to train the 11" on the fine binary star Gamma Leonis after first giving me the appropriate instruction.Using the observatory's other instrument, a 16" f/13.5 Boller & Chivens classical Cassegrain, we visitors had views of Saturn, Izar, M49, M104, NGC 3242, M65, M66, M81, and M82. Unfortunately, Lancaster's light polluted skies made the job of discerning any detail in the galaxies difficult, as one might expect. The reflector's massive single-arm mount was equipped with a GOTO drive. Manual input of right ascension and declination was accomplished by setting analog dials. The telescope slewed to objects with surprising speed and accuracy.I certainly enjoyed my visit to the Grundy Observatory. It was great fun to do some observing with yet another large Clark refractor.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.0, est. to be in Cancer)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Lewisberry, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu May 15 02:00:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 812

I drove to the ASH Naylor Observatory (click on Naylor Observatory at http://www.astrohbg.org ) last night to help out with the spring introductory astronomy class. The class had already done a bit of solar observing with our old orange-tube 8" f/10 Celestron C8 before I arrived. Although the sun was getting fairly low in the sky I took a quick look and saw three smallish sunspots.I sat in on the class until the sky began to darken. I was awarethat a rather rare shadow transit by Callisto was underway and went out to see it through our 12.5" f/6.5 Cave Astrola. The shadow was clearly evident through a 15mm Edmund Scientific RKE (138x). Callisto and Io were closing in on a mutual occultation (see http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_771_3.aspfor further information) that eventually occurred at 12:11 a.m. EDT (4:11 UT 5/15).As the students started to filter outside I trained the C8 on Jupiter using a 13mm Tele Vue Ploessl (156x) and then opened the French Dome. The transit was displayed quite nicely at 202x through our 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain and a 32mm University Optics Koenig-II. After the students all had had a turn I increased the magnification to 259x (25mm U.O. MK-70), but the view was a bit soft given the seeing. A 28mm RKE (216x) provided a great view a bit later.We began looking at the 13-day old moon and other objects with the 12.5" Cave, the C8, and our 10" f/7 Cave Astrola. I swung the 12.5" to Saturn and then the 17". A few double stars (Mizar, Castor, and Algieba) were sprinkled in as well. Callisto's shadow reached the CM around 9:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 UT 5/15). Bob Young, the class instructor and the club's resident lunar expert, and I spent a few minutes on the moon (not literally mind you) as some clouds began scudding through. Reiner Gamma ( http://web.tiscali.it/no-redirect-tiscali/themoon/reinergamma.htm ) was a standout feature.So on the first semi-clear night in some time an enjoyable evening of observing occurred despite the bright moonlight and occasional clouds.

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