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Mars (Planet, est. mag -.6, est. to be in Gemini)
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 Nov 2 04:30:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1729
Just after midnight I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. The first thing I noticed was Mars' north polar ice cap was showing. This means the north polar hood has desolved. Like Joe Caggiano mentioned in the previous post I too am having difficulty seeing the dark albedo features on Mars. I may have seen the white area of the Hallas Basin but I can't be sure. I think there may still be some dust lingering in Mars' atmosphere. Before dawn I arose again to take my first look at Saturn. I can now see part of Saturn's northern hemisphere as Saturn's rings become closer to edge on. I couuld not see any features on Saturn yet. It's still a long way from opposition. Finally I also took a look at Venus. It looks like Venus' waxing face is now about half lit. I also observed some light albedo shading in the equitorial region of Venus
Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.8, est. to be in Gemini)
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 29 04:15:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1725
Early this morning I observed Mars and the Orion Nebula with my 127mm MAK. Mars' dark features are showing better as Mars draws closer to earth. I also saw limb haze on one end of Mars. Mars is about 90% waxing gibbous. The Orion Nebula has a nice greenish tinge to it. Even bright moonlight didn't stop me from seeing Orion in all its glory. Earlier I took another look at Comet 17P/Holmes in my 10x50 binoculars. This comet is huge even in binos. It looks stellar to the naked eye. With good weather coming this week I will be observing Mars and Comet Holmes all week long.
Mars (Planet, est. mag -0.6, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Oct 28 08:00:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1728
Mars' distance continues to shrink. The polar cap was easily visible but I did expect alittle more surface detail and albedo markings. At the time of my viewing, Mars was 11.83" arcseconds diameter and a mere 0.75 AU from Earth. This corrolates to 69.75 Million miles. That's 20 million less than my previous posting just a ew weeks ago. Mars' magnitude is -0.6. At it's brightest in late Decmber, only the moon and Venus will outshine it. I have posted pics on my website.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag -7, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Sun Oct 21 04:45:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1721
Last evening after midnight I sat on my deck to observe the Orinid Meteor Shower. The first meteor I spotted was a fireball of about -7 magnitude. It only traveled about one degree before it blew up in a flash and lit up the trees in front of my deck. I also saw two others that left nice smoke trains. I also enjoyed looking at Mars, Orion and all the other objects in the night sky with just my naked eye. Earlier I observed the ISS which was supposed to be -1.3 magnitude but it was much dimmer, about 0 magnitude. Finally I took a glimpse at the sun this morning with my Sunspotter Solar Telescope. Still no sunspots. This evening my friends and I are going to try to observe comet Loneos. It will be located to the lower left of Arcturus if anyone wants to take a stab at it. Go to spaceweather.com for a sky chart.
Mars (Planet, est. mag -.2, est. to be in Gemini)
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: Sun Oct 14 04:45:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1719
Early this morning I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. The dark features on Mars are now getting easier to see. I was able to see and identify Syrtis Major. Also the north polar hood is becoming more pronounced. In my last report about Mars I misidentified it as the south polar hood. That was the first time I ever made a mistake in my entire life.
Mars (Planet, est. mag -0.17, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Tue Oct 2 07:30:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1717
Got my first real good viewing of Mars this season. It was also my first viewing with my new 10" scope. Using my binoviewers and a 2x barlow as well as a 1.9x, I managed to slow my scope down to f/17.9. The surface details were subtle but clearly there. On Mars' left limb was a blueish-white hooded polar cap. On the right limb extending from the 3:00 to the 6:00 position was a large mass which turned out to be Syrtis Major. The surface setail was a light tan on a peach-colored disk (except for the polar cap. Mars is currently 10.1 arcseconds in size and is a distance of just under 90 million miles away (0.967 AU) and quickly closing. It currently shines at magnitude -0.17. Opposition is on December 24 of this year. I have posted a picture on my website.
Venus (Planet, est. mag -4.5, est. to be in Gemini)
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: Mon May 14 00:45:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1653
This evening, my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I did some side walk astronomy at the West Haven beach. Venus still has an active atmosphere with a large dark area near the terminator just above its equator. In the southern hemisphere there is still a dark belt that I can see easily. Saturn looked unremarkable except for one faintly seen cloud band. Since mercury was so low on the horizon we had to show the public Mercury through my 10X50 binoculars. Everyone who observed Mercury commented on how pink mercury looked.
M35 (Open Cluster, in Gemini)
Observer: mihai mataringa (e-mail: mihaimataringa@yahoo.com)
Instrument: 7x50-mm binoculars Location: Constanta, Romania
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Fri Dec 15 18:45:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1601
Faint but easy object in 7x50 binos.Start from mu Gem-eta Gem-M35.Two stars resolved with averted vision.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag -4, est. to be in Gemini)
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 Dec 14 05:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1598
I just finished obseving the Geminid meteor shower. From 10:00 PM till midnight, I had lots of haze, fog and patches of low clouds. Despite all this, I still was able to see seventeen meteors in the two hour span. Fourteen of the meteors were brighter than Sirius including several -3 and -4 magnitude meteors. I also noticed at the beginning of my observations, the meteors were yellow but as the night wore on the meteors looked blue. I also noticed the blue meteors were brighter than the yellow ones. All in all, it was a good show.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag -1, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Thu Oct 26 04:10:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1573
Before I went to bed, I sat out on my deck to just enjoy the night sky. While I was sitting there, I saw a bright Orinid Meteor fall from the sky to my east. It was bright yellow and rather slow moving for an Orinid Meteor and it was about -1 magnitude. After seeing it, I went to bed with a smile on my face.
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 8-inch refractor Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Fri Apr 7 01:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1522
This evening, my friend Mike Dzubaty and I took a ride to the observatory at Yale to observe Saturn and Mars in their 200 year old 8" refractor. Saturn's belt was easy and crystal clear to see. There was also a subtle dark shading that extended from the south polar region to the south equitorial belt. The Cassini division was very sharp and clear. As for Mars, the planet was obviously gibbous and to my shock, I was able to see dark subtle markings on the planet. Why can't I have a telescope like this?
Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -1.0, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Mar 24 00:09:45 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1513
This evening, I observed Iridiam 40 as it came over my head. When the sun hit it just right, it brightened to -1st magnitude for about five seconds. I always get a kick out of watching Iridiam flares.
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Gemini)
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: Mon Feb 20 02:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1497
Simply the best viewing of Saturn this season thus far! The Cassinni division stuck out like a sore thumb. Bright and crisp as I have ever seen! I caught glances of 2 equatorial cloud belts. Moons easily visible were Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione and Tethys. Viewed at 71x, 142x and 203x. While viewing Saturn I took time to admire M44 nearby. At high power there appeared 3 trios of stars in the middle of the cluste. One trio appeared as a right triangle, the 2nd trio appeared as an eqalateral triangle and the last one was an isosoles triangle. All the stars were of similar magnitude. Never noticed them before because I never viewed on such high power.
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Gemini)
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: good
Time: Mon Jan 30 02:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1484
Viewed Saturn last night before the clouds rolled in. At low power, Saturn once again was beautiful right at the fringe of M44. Viewing at 203x it was harder to make out the Cassinni Division than it was a few nights ago. Also, no equatorial cloud belt could be seen. Though I should have been able to see 4 of Saturn's moons, I only saw 3. Titan, in a far orbit at about 5 ring diameters, was easiest. Rhea and Dione , much closer to Saturn, were on the opposite side as Titan. I took some pics w/ the webcam and I will post the best one later today (Monday).
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -0.2, est. to be in Gemini)
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: good
Time: Fri Jan 27 02:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1485
I just realized that my picture of Saturn has a storm that just started. As reported by NASA, a storm swelled up on January 27. Here is the report on it. The pic on my webpage was shot Jan 26, the night before.http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060127.html
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -1, est. to be in Gemini)
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: good
Time: Fri Jan 27 00:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1482
Viewed Saturn last night at 71x, 142x, 178x and 203x throughout the night. It was perched beautifully next to M44. At low power it appears in the same field of view as the Beehive. With binoviewers at 178x the Cassinni Division as well as a single tan cloud belt in the southern hemisphere showed up. 3 moons were also visible in a scattered array. I did not check my software or magazines to see which 3 they were because I was trying to get some shots with my webcam. I did manage a string of shots posted on my website.Ended viewing around 10:00 EST.
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -.5, est. to be in Gemini)
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 26 01:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1481
This evening, I observed Saturn with my 127mm MAK. I noticed the south polar cap is not nearly as dark as it was last year or the year before. Usually around opposition, the south polar cap is much darker than it is now. I also turned my scope onto Sirius in order to try to see its companion Sirius B. I couldn't split Sirius but I did notice that in my telescope, Sirius looked completely white but with my naked eye, it looked blue green. Next year, Sirius & Sirius B will be wider apart and splitable in many amateur telescopes.
Saturn (Planet, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Jan 16 02:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1470
Last night I viewed Saturn near M44 (Beehive) cluster. At 15x Saturn was easily within the same FOV as the cluster itself. The nearly full moon was close by, partially drowning out all but the brightest stars of the cluster.
M35 (Open Cluster, in Gemini)
Observer: B (e-mail: brilbri29@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Denver, Colorado, USofA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Thu Dec 29 16:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1460
Not bad, for Denver. Not to exciting
Saturn (Planet, est. mag -1, est. to be in Gemini)
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: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 20 16:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1445
Viewed Saturn through new binoviewers (and moderate cloud cover). Using both eyes (hooray!) I could make out alot more detail than squnting. Through the clouds I spotted 4 of Saturns moons, Titan, Rhea, Dione and Tethus. The binoviewer gave the impression that Titan and Rhea were on the Earthside of Saturn and that Dione and Tethus were on the far side of Saturn (behind the planet itself.) Though this is not necessarily true in reality, the brain "perceives" the brighter objects close up and the dimmer objects further back. Thus the view is translated as 3d.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag -2, est. to be in Gemini, Est. RaDec high up)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Wed Dec 14 03:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1436
Spotted 2 meteors while searching Monoceros for the Rosette Nebula. No luck on the nebula (lots of light pollution from the moon) but I did spot the meteors. The first one was probably magnitude -2 and yellow in color. It was visible for almost 30 degrees as it streaked straight South. Time was about 8:00. The second was not as bright. Probably magnitude 0 and blue-white in color, it was visible for about 15 degrees as it streaked from Gemini to the Southwest (in the vicinity of the moon). Time was about 10:30.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag 0.0, est. to be in Gemini)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: poor Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Dec 11 02:05:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1430
This evening, I sat out on my deck to try to see some Geminid Meteors. There was one meteor that was slow moving and rather bright.It had a slightly blue tinge to it. Right after I saw the meteor, my friends, the clouds rolled in and that was the end of my meteor viewing. The shower should peak late Tuesday evening before midnight.
NGC2158 (Open Cluster, in Gemini)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Fri Nov 11 04:35:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1420
I could barely pick out this cluster, located close M35, from a light polluted sky. I hope to get much better views from a dark place.
M35 (Open Cluster, in Gemini)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Fri Nov 11 04:35:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1419
A very good cluster. It gave an excellent view through an 8 inch reflector from a dark site, the previous month.
NGC2392 (Planetary Nebula, in Gemini)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Fri Nov 11 04:35:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1418
Almost confused it for a double star as itt's very close to a star. I used the nebula filter to verify that it is a planetary nebula. It was quite unmistakable as it appeared slightly oval and irregular to my eyes.
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