Observations made in the constellation Leo

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Observations made in the constellation Leo:

Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.2, est. to be in Leo)
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: Thu Jan 28 02:15:00 2010 UT   Obs. no.: 1846

Last evening I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK and with my 12mm Televue Eyepiece. Mars' north polar icecap has started to recede. A couple of weeks ago I noticed some shrinkage of the NPC but now it's very obvious. I can now see albedo features quite easily now that mars is at opposition. Also there was a little limb haze on Mars.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.5, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: poor
Time: Fri Dec 18 04:00:00 2009 UT   Obs. no.: 1841

Last evening my brother Anthony and I observed Mars with my 127MM MAK and 12mm Televue eyepiece. We were able to see the North Polar Ice Cap without any difficulty. The ice cap should start melting soon but so far it's very obvious. I've also been observing sunspot complex 1035 with my solar scope. A CME was ejected towards earth and we have a chance to see an Aurora this evening. Here's hoping.

Comet (Comet, est. mag 5, est. to be in Leo)
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 Feb 25 03:00:00 2009 UT   Obs. no.: 1816

This evening my brother Anthony and I observed Comet Lulin with my 127mm MAK and my 10X50 binoculars. In binos the comet looked large and was an oval shaped fuzzball. However, in my telescope the comet had a stellar point with two short tails going away the the comet diaganally. Everyone is saying the the comet looks green but to my brother and I, it looked grey. We also observed Saturn. Saturn's rings are almost edge on now. Even though they were nearly edge on, we could still see them easily. Also we saw three moons of Saturn.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag .5, est. to be in Leo)
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 Oct 20 10:30:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1803

Early this morning I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. Saturn's rings are becoming more edge on as we near late December when they will be almost completely edge on. I am able to see Saturn's northern hemishere with no truoble now. I couldn't see any markings on Saturn this time but that will change as Saturn heads towards opposition. I also observed Saturn's satellite Rhea quite easily.

Mars (Planet, est. mag 1.5, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Fri Jul 11 01:15:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1793

This evening Steve Borer and I observed the close encounter between Saturn and Mars using my 10X50 binoculars and our naked eye. Mars and Saturn came within three quarters of a degree to each other. In binoculars Saturn's yellow color contrasted very nicely to the orange color of Mars. Saturn also was the brighter of the two planets. Both planets will remain fairly close to each other for the next few days.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.7, est. to be in Leo, Est. RaDec 10h22m +12, 21')
Observer: Scott Malthouse (e-mail: semicolon_irrigation@hotmail.co.uk)
Instrument: binoculars   Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Jun 5 11:39:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1788

Saturn is in Leo right now and can be seen after dark above Regulus, at magnitute 0.7; making it a good sight even if there's excessive light pollution.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag .3, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Apr 18 01:00:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1778

This evening my friends Mike Dzubaty, his son Mike, Steve Borer, Rob Masaw and I held an informal star party at the West Haven beach for about thirty people. As usual the big favorite was Saturn. We were all able to see the shadow casted on Saturn's rings. Titan also was visible. When we turned the scope on Mars we could easily see its gibbous phase. What surprised me was my ability to still see albedo features on Mars although I couldn't identify them. When we turned our scopes onto the moon we were able to see Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii which were turned favorably towards us. Usually they are on the back side of the moon. Lastly we saw a -3 magnitude Iridium flare cross the eastern sky. The best part was the temperature was nice and mild.

Meteor (Meteor, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Mark D. Schneider (e-mail: markd_s@yahoo.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: Garden Grove, California, United States of America
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Wed Apr 16 05:08:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1777

A semi-bright flash was seen passing over from North to South east of the Gibbous Moon tonight...they aren't too visible from here.

Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -1, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Mark D. Schneider (e-mail: markd_s@yahoo.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: Garden Grove, California, United States of America
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Apr 14 02:46:30 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1774

Iridium 90 made a rather faint pass over us tonight SE of the Gibbous Moon.

Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -3, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Mark D. Schneider (e-mail: markd_s@yahoo.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: Garden Grove, California, United States of America
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Apr 13 02:52:30 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1773

Inasmuch as the CalSky website predicted a SHORT Flare from Iridium 50 tonight over a nearby location, I can say that it was longer and not as bright; nevertheless, the event certainly did restore my "faith" in this activity I have adopted. Previous to this, I have noticed that the Heaven's Above website has been more accurate these past few months to the point that I have begun making sure that they "match up" on BOTH of them.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag -.5, est. to be in Leo)
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 25 00:45:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1764

This evening I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. Since Saturn is at opposition I tried to view the Seeliger effect which is a brightening of Saturn's rings at opposition. The Seeeliger effect wasn't nearly as bright as last year. I think the reason is the rings are more edge on this year which reduces the reflected sunlight on the rings. I also noticed the south polar hood wasn't nearly as dark as it was last year. Last year the polar hood was almost black and very large in size. This year I could hardly see it at all. Finally the only moon I saw was Titan.

Moon (Moon, est. mag -5, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Feb 21 03:01:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1763

This evening my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer, Joe Cseh and Bob Masud observed the total lunar eclipse. At first the sky was partly to mostly cloudy as the eclipse entered its partial phase. The skies continued to clear as it moved toward totality. About 15 minutes before totality the right and upper parts of the moon showed a blue color. This was probably caused by ozone in the atmosphere. During totality the moon had a deep orange red glow with the central regions of the moon being dark. Using the Danjon scale I rated the eclipse as L= 2. Another thing we noticed was the penumbra was rather easy to spot. The penumbra began in the lower left hand part of the eclipse all of us saw it quite easily. Finally very cold temperatures forced us indoors and now we must wait until December 2010 for the next total lunar eclipse.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag .21, est. to be in Leo)
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: Tue Jan 29 04:15:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1757

This evening I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. With Saturn's rings less than two years away from being edge on I am now able to see both hemispheres of Saturn. However, I could not see any albedo markings on Saturn's northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere I was able to view the south equitorial belt and the south polar hood which is only slightly darkened. I also saw Saturn's satellites Rhea which was close to the planet and Titan which was well away from Saturn.

Venus (Planet, est. mag -4.5, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Jul 26 00:20:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1684

I just finished observing Venus with my binoculars in order to see its crescent. Even in binoculars Venus' crescent is easy to see. I simply braced my binos on my car and viewed. As Venus' crescent shrinks the apparant size of the planet grows. In the next week or so you can view Venus' crescent with binoculars.

Venus (Planet, est. mag -4.3, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Jul 2 01:10:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1674

This evening I took another look at the close conjunction of Venus and Saturn, this time with my binoculars. In my binos Saturn has an oblong shape do to its rings while Venus' crescent showed very well in my binos. It was quite a treat.

Venus (Planet, est. mag -4.3, est. to be in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jul 1 01:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1673

Last night my friend Joe Cseh and I observed the close conjuction of Venus and Saturn. Saturn was two thirds of a degree above Venus. We enjoyed the conjuction until they both set behind a hill.

M65 (Galaxy, in Leo)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars   Location: Promised Land State Park, Pa, USA
Light pollution: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Apr 22 06:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1640

From our campsite in Promised Land State Park in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we had incredibly clear skies for our annual trout fishing trip. The night sky was the best I had seen ever up there! It was about as dark as my trip a few years ago to West Virginia. With my binos I finally saw the "Trio in Leo". M65, M66 and NGC3628 all appeared readily. I could even make out the spiral structure in M66. I estimate that M65 and M66 have about the same angular distance as M81 and M82 (which I aslo viewed.)The Leo Triplets are about 35 million LY distant.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.2, est. to be in Leo)
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: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Tue Apr 3 02:30:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1634

As it got darker the wind started picking up so that it was difficult to appreciate the views I was getting of Saturn. I did however manage to sketch the view and 4 of saturn's moons. Looking on a Saturn Satellite chart, I viewed Dione (mag 10.2) and Rhea (mag 9.8) close to the planet. Titan (mag 8.4) was very bright and just off the field of view. Iapetus (mag 11.2) was dimmer and even further away than than Titan was on the opposite side of the other moons.

I viewed Saturn on Friday night around 10:15 PM. Little wind and steady skies allowed me an above average viewing. The Cassinni Division stood out readily through binoviewers at almost 200x. According to my Astonomy magazine, Saturn's southern hemispere should be pointing toward us. My viewing session did indeed show the south polar hood as a dark blueish-gray shadow extending to about 20�. A single dark equatorial belt was also easily visible. Though I achieved a pair of good pictures of this view, I have not posted them as they were not as good as last year's postings. Saturn currently shines at magnitude 0.2 and is 19.5 arcseconds in diameter. It is also receeding away from us and is right now 8.56 AU or approx. 800 million miles away.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.5, est. to be in Leo)
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: Fri Mar 2 23:30:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1627

This evening I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. Now that Saturn is past opposision, I am beginning to notice a narrow shadow forming on the rings on the west side of Saturn. As time goes on, the shadow on the rings will become larger and easier to see. I also took out my cross stick alidade to measure how far apart Regulus and Saturn are . Right now they are about 9 degrees apart and I will be tracking Saturn's motion in relation to Regulus in the future. Speaking of Regulus, there was a nice close conjuction between the Moon and Regulus this evening.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.0, est. to be in Leo)
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: Sat Feb 10 01:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1623

This evening I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. Right around opposition, the sunlight reflected off saturn's face back onto its rings causes the rings to look brighter than they usually are. The brightening shows on the part of the rings that are directly in front of the face of Saturn. This is called The Seeliger effect and it will continue to be relatively easy to see for the next few days.

This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Teleview eyepiece. I was able to see the south equitorial belt of Saturn fairly well. The cassini division is still easy to see despite the lessening of the rings tilt. Also, the south polar hood doesn't look nearly as dark as it did a month ago. I was also able to make out the disc of Saturn's moon Titan. The disc had a slight orange tint which is the haze of titan's atmosphere.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.1, est. to be in Leo)
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: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Jan 21 17:30:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1616

Tried, in vain,for the 2nd weekend in a row to get a decent glimpse of Saturn. Using multiple eyepieces for different magnifications, the sky just would not be still. Discolored and "boiling" I could only see 2 of Saturn's moons and could not even see the Cassinni Division with any reliable clarity. Hopefully the view will be better soon. In early February, Saturn reaches opposition. Currently Saturn is 0.1 magnitude and spans 20.0 arcseconds. It is 770 million miles from the Earth presently.

Last night, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Televue eyepiece. The first thing I noticed was how Saturn's rings are much less tilted than last year. I also noticed the south polar region has a much darker hood than it did last year. The hood was also very dark two years ago. I also got a very good look at Titan. Since I was in the area, I also stopped by to observe Regulus which is an easy to see double star. Even at low power the double is easy to split. Finally, with my naked eye, I enjoyed the close encounter of the last quarter moon with Regilus above it and Saturn above Regulus. It was quite a sight.

Saturn (Planet, est. mag 0.5, est. to be in Leo)
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: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Dec 9 06:30:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1596

Viewed Saturn late Friday Evening (actually Saturday morning) with my binoviewers. Conditions were VERY crisp and I let the scope sit outside for an hour before I viewed. The viewing was, in my opinion, perfect. No wind, crystal clear and extremely dark were the conditions I was favored with. I could easily see the Cassinni Division as well as a single obvious equatorial belt along the southern hemisphere. All this without even using any filter! I tried getting a picture of it with the LPI but my camera's USB connection started going bad. I had to wait until the following night to take pictures with new USB cables I bought that day. The atmosphere was nothing like the night before so I decided to pack it in for the night.

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