| Time: | Shortly after sunset |
| Location: | My Backyard |
| Telescope: | n/a |
| Activity: | Photography of Venus - Jupiter Conjunction |
On February 23 Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction
in the Western sky, separated by on a quarter degree. I
took a series of photographs right up till the day before
closest approach. Of course, on the actual night it was
cloudy! So, I used some digital photo manipulation to
create a fake conjunction shot!
 |
Real photo taken Feb. 22 |
 |
Fake photo after digitally moving Venus closer to Jupiter. But at least it gives a good idea of what the conjunction would have looked like if it had not been cloudy. |
| Time: | 22:30 - 01:30 EDT |
| Location: | My Backyard |
| Telescope: | Meade 10-inch LX6 SCT |
| Activity: | Asteroidal Occultation Timing & Deep Sky Observing |
First time out with a telescope for 1999. Set up specifically to observe and time the asteroidal occultation by Ophelia at about 23:00 hrs. I recorded a negative observation as the path had shifted slightly south.
Also, observed 2 new objects:
Cr 89 (OC in Gem) and NGC 3941 (G in UMa), but failed to
see NGC 3184 (G in UMa). (S.B. = surface
brightness)
| Object | Const | Mag | S.B. | Comments |
| NGC 3941 | UMa | 10.3 | 12.5 | Easily seen despite heavy light pollution! |
| NGC 3184 | UMa | 9.8 | 13.9 | Not seen, S.B. is too faint. |
| Time: | 23:00 - 00:30 EDT |
| Location: | My Backyard |
| Telescope: | Meade 10-inch LX6 SCT |
| Activity: | Deep Sky Observing |
This was an experimental night of deep sky observing from the city. I chose four galaxies that are in the same field of view as other bright stars/objects (thus easy to locate) and checked for visibility. Here are my results: (S.B. = surface brightness)
| Object | Const | Mag | S.B. | Comments |
| NGC 3877 | UMa | 11.0 | 13.0 | not seen |
| M109 | UMa | 9.8 | 13.6 | not seen |
| NGC 4490 | CVn | 9.8 | 12.9 | barely visible |
| NGC 6207 | Her | 11.6 | 12.9 | not seen |
Starfest '99
| Time: | 00:00 - 02:00 EDT |
| Location: | Mount Forest, Ontario |
| Telescope: | Meade 10-inch LX6 SCT |
| Activity: | Deep Sky Observing |
| Thursday, July 15 - Cloudy. Friday, July 16 - Very hazy, quite warm, windy, no dew, poor sky. Saturday, July 17 - Cloudy. On Friday night I observed 3 "new"
brighter open clusters: NGC 6604 (Ser), Ru
141 (Sct), and NGC 6738 (Aql). Anything fainter
would not have been visible due to the haze. |
 |
| On Saturday evening hopes were high for clearing skies, but in fact the "sucker holes" shown on this photo closed up and the overcast skies remained. | |
| Time: | 21:30 - 02:00 EDT |
| Location: | Port Granby |
| Telescope: | Meade 10-inch LX6 SCT |
| Activity: | Deep Sky Observing |
Arrived on site at 21:20, Spilios Asimakopoulos was also there. Had to contend with clouds between 22:30 and 23:15, and again between 00:30 and 01:00.
Observed 6 "new"
objects:
NGC 3998, NGC 3990, NGC 3982, NGC 3953 (all galaxies in
UMa).
Cr 401 (OC in Aql), and NGC 7507 (G in Scl).
Also saw the Helix Nebula (NGC
7293), which I had not seen in a long time. My comments
from my logbook read "Huge & bright, I can't
believe it's so large and easy to see. Great!"
| Time: | 23:00 - 00:30 EDT |
| Location: | North-east of Lakefield, Ontario |
| Telescope: | Meade 10-inch LX6 SCT |
| Activity: | Deep Sky Observing |
Lots of moisture in the air with tons of dew, also
lots of local light pollution from the resort. Generally
a poor sky, but I had to make the most of it. I observed 3 "new" galaxies in
Pisces:
NGC 7541, NGC 7562, NGC 7785.
| No. of observing sessions | 5 |
| Approx. telescope time | 12 hours |
| "New" deep sky objects found | 14 |
| No. of comets seen | 0 |
| No. of auroral displays seen | 0 |
| Total deep sky objects observed | 748 |
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |