1496m 2011/11/22

1496m 2011/11/22 05:35–06:50 EST Foxmead upstairs E window 8–5 ne

Mars and Regulus: Mars now slightly brighter than Regulus.


Saturn, Spica, and the Moon: Nice tight grouping. Light cirrus clouds moving in.

Temperature: -7°C

1494m 2011/11/21

1494m 2011/11/21 05:00–07:00 EST Foxmead upstairs E window 8 ne

Recorded out of sequence.


Mars and Regulus: Mars is now slightly brighter than Regulus.


Saturn and Spica: Saturn is now slightly brighter than Spica.

Moon: Waning crescent in between the two groups.

This session inspired me to write about "Solstice Observing" for this week's Space.com article.

Temperature: -8.7°C

1495e 2011/11/21–22

1495e 2011/11/21–22 17:20 EST Foxmead W window 8 ne 7x50b


Venus and Mercury: spotted Mercury about 4° below and to the right of Venus.

Jupiter: rising in the east. All 5 naked eye planets in one day!

[Accidentally logged before this morning's session, 1494m.]

1493d 2011/11/06

1493d 2011/11/06 12:20–12:50 EST Foxmead POD 8 ne 28cmsc 4cmrr

Sun: Counted 33 spots in 7 groups for a sunspot number of 103. 70x in 28cmsc.

1492e 2011/11/05–06

1492e 2011/11/05–06 18:30–03:30 EDT Foxmead W window 8 ne 7x50b

Venus: Observed Venus for the first time this year as an evening star. Could not see Mercury just below it with 7x50s.

Later during the night observed Mars making an "S" of the sickle in Leo from E window..

1491e 2011/11/04–05

1491e 2011/11/04–05 20:36:55 EDT Foxmead W window 8 ne

Meteor: Sitting watching TV in the living room, I saw a beautiful fireball out the window:

I just saw a bright fireball, at least -5 magnitude, out my west-facing window at 08:36:55 EDT. Time is within 5 seconds, as I just synched my watch with my computer. It came down very steadily, slightly angled from left to right as it fell, and disappeared behind distant hills to the west. It was pure white in colour, and seemed a little bit larger than point-sized to my naked eye.

After posting this report online, I received several replies:

Subject: Re: [RASCals] Bright fireball
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:18:36 -0400
From: Rob Weryk <rjweryk@uwo.ca>
Reply-To: RASCals Discussion List <rascals@lists.rasc.ca>
To: RASCals Discussion List <rascals@lists.rasc.ca>

Hi Geoff,

This was recorded by my software which runs the Southern Ontario 
Meteor Network.  You can view video clips from three of the 
stations here:

 http://meteor.uwo.ca/~weryk/allsky/ev_20111105_003638A_04A.avi
 http://meteor.uwo.ca/~weryk/allsky/ev_20111105_003638A_06A.avi 
 http://meteor.uwo.ca/~weryk/allsky/ev_20111105_003638A_07A.avi

The event was travelling at about 14.5 km/s, ended at a height 
of 44 km, and reached a peak magnitude of at least -4.5.

  Rob Weryk 

----------

Subject: Re: [RASC Toronto List] Re: Bright fireball
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:40:38 -0400
From: Denis J Grey <denisjgrey@gmail.com>
Reply-To: rasctoronto@yahoogroups.com
To: rasctoronto@yahoogroups.com

Hi Geoff,

We also saw it up at the CAO last night. Very bright and also on
the western horizon so it's probably in Lake Huron.

It would definitely be on the All-Sky Camera network so let's
keep our fingers crossed.

Best,

Denis.