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Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.5, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Wed Jul 9 07:00:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 833
I was able to observe mars at 200X. The Martian dust storm continues. I am continuing to have a hard time seeing land features on Mars. Although the dust storm itself is not a global storm, I still believe dust itself is spreading out and hurting our view of Mars. The south pole is still shrinking and Mars doesn't appear to be gibbous any more. With the naked eye and binoculars, Mars looks bright yellow with no orange tinge. This also is a sign of wide spread dust in the atmosphere.
Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.3, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 14.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Hazelton, West Virginia, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jun 25 08:00:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 825
Last week I traveled to the mountains of West Virginia to attend the Laurel Highlands Star Cruise (see http://www.lhstarcruise.org/ for further information). While there I observed Mars on several mornings through two 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dobs equipped with Zambuto mirrors. The use of an apodizing mask, Wratten #21 filters, and magnifications as high as 520x produced some stunning views. The SPC, Syrtis Major, and the gibbous nature of the planet were unmistakable.
Mars (Planet, est. mag -1, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jun 25 07:00:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 824
This morning, I observed Mars at 133X. The south pole is now very obvious, even as it continues to shrink slowly. Mars seems to be about 95% gibbous. Limb haze continues on the right side of Mars, as seen in a newtonian reflector. I also observed three small white cloud patches on the face of Mars for only a brief period of good seeing. I also observed Mare Acidalium near the north pole and Aurorae Sinus near the equator.
NGC7293 (Planetary Nebula, in Aquarius)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Nov 7 03:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 713
I decided to see if I could view the Helix Nebula from my light polluted back yard. I had to use binoculors to just get oriented since it is in Aquarius which is a fairly dim constellation. It lies within a pattern of 5 stars easy to see in binocs so it was pretty easy to find. I used an OIII filter to confirm its position. The dimensions are about 16x28 arc minutes so you cant miss it. I couldnt make out any real detail and it was fairly faint, but I was able to note the slightly darker center. When I removed the OIII filter it became completely invisible. My feet were getting cold so I decided to pack it in for the night without studying it to carefully.
NGC7293 (Planetary Nebula, in Aquarius, Est. RaDec 22h29m -21)
Observer: Thomas Godfrey (e-mail: choccy_bourbon@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: Norwich, Norfolk, England
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Thu Oct 19 21:00:00 2000 UT Obs. no.: 581
Very low from my UK location but on a good night it can be seen as a large disc of uniform brightness with my binoculars.
Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.3, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 4.5-inch equatorial reflector Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Mon Jan 4 00:20:00 1999 UT Obs. no.: 434
Tonight I viewed an interesting dance of three of the Galilean satellites as a shadow transit of Europa transpired (22:54 to 01:31 UT). When I began observing at 00:20 UT Europa was well clear of the western limb of Jupiter and formed a right triangle with Ganymede and Callisto. By 01:36 UT the right triangle had transformed into one of the isosceles variety. As Ganymede continued its eastward progress towards occultation at 04:56 UT the isosceles triangle changed aspect and narrowed (00:50 to 01:00 UT). By 01:35 UT the three moons had formed a dogleg pattern. As time passed the dogleg straightened out somewhat. Jupiter was well into the western treeline at 02:30 UT, the time of my last observation. I used magnifications of 106 and 134x under rather unsteady seeing conditions.
Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.4, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 4.5-inch equatorial reflector Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Dec 2 23:12:00 1998 UT Obs. no.: 427
I witnessed one of the moons of Jupiter reappear from eclipse this evening. Prior to when Io emerged from Jupiter's shadow the only Galilean satellite visible was Callisto to the west of Jupiter. Europa and Ganymede were transiting so a casual observer would notice that Jupiter had but one moon! One minute later at 23:13 UT Europa's transit ended. At 01:54 UT Ganymede cleared Jupiter's disk. Shortly thereafter all 4 satellites were visible once again.
Other (Other, est. mag 5, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch equatorial reflector Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Fri Oct 16 02:09:00 1998 UT Obs. no.: 405
Tonight at 02:09 UT I witnessed the reappearance of the Galilean satellite Europa as it passed out of eclipse from the shadow of Jupiter. Europa reemerged from darkness in the span of about a minute. Earlier I watched Io disappear as it was occulted by Jupiter at 01:15 UT. I also observed Jupiter, Saturn and 4 of its satellites, and M30 at various magnifications (118, 202, 249, and 259x) in addition to doing some eyepiece projection photography (32mm Brandon) of Jupiter and Saturn.
Sun (Sun, est. to be in Aquarius)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 80-mm refractor Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Thu Feb 26 18:12:41 1998 UT Obs. no.: 311
At 18:12:41 UT the Moon's shadow covered the MS Veendam at coordinates 12d35'21N, 69d26'44 W. (The ship's captain did a masterful job of piloting the ship to a site free of wind and clouds.) The magnificent spectacle of a total solar eclipse entranced the passengers and crew of the 720 foot long vessel for some 3 minutes and 36 seconds. This was the shortest 3 minutes of my life! As the first diamond ring blossomed and I pulled the solar filters from my Orion ShortTube and Cannon SLR camera I experienced the majesty of the sun's corona and a fiery red prominence. I was fascinated by the almost living quality of the polar brushes and mostly symmetrical corona. Venus had appeared to the Sun's west well before totality and Jupiter and Mercury were very prominent to the immediate west and east of the Sun respectively. Mars and Saturn were also visible but after not finding them immediately I jumped back to my camera and eyepiece. The sky did not grow as dark as I had expected and I was oblivious to any temperature change. A second prominence appeared (that I did not catch) and towards the end of totality 3 more were made manifest. I caught the very beginning of the second diamond ring as I yanked my head away from the eyepiece frantically. The eclipse was over already! How could that it possibly be? "Shadow bands" someone exclaimed but I could not make them out. Everyone on the forward Promenade deck cheered the end of the awesome celestial event and spirits were sky high (pun intended) as the moon's shadow raced eastward.
Comet (Comet, est. mag 8, est. to be in Aquarius, Est. RaDec 21h15m, -9d29')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch equatorial reflector Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 2 01:24:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 257
I located the short periodic comet 103P/Hartley 2 tonight. This comet, which was discovered by Malcolm Hartley in 1986, has a period of 6.4 years and will come to perihelion on December 21st when it will be about 0.8 AU from the earth. The 1997 apparition is an unusually good one. P/Hartley 2 appeared as a somewhat irregularelliptical shape of uniform brightness, with perhaps some brightening at its core. I could detect no trace of a tail. The comet was to the southwest of the star due south of 14 Aquarii. Observations were made at 118, 144, and 202x.
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