Report from Montreal. December 29,2014.

[RodexMtl]

Location: LaSalle, QC. Canada 45.4286° N, 73.6634° W

Date: 12/29/2014 from 20h30  to 22h30 (GMT-5)

Equipment: Bushnell Legacy 10x50. No monopod

Book and Guides: Binocular Highlights. Gary Seronik

Softwares used:Sky Portal (celestron), Moons of Jupiter (qSoftDotApk), Astronomical Flashlights

Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude: 3.8 (using star count field method, in Gemini)

Weather conditions: Clear, T= -8 degrees celsius. P=1025.4mb. Humidity: 52%

The principal atraction to see was the Comet Lovejoy Q2. With a cold weather, I just decided to focus in the Orion region, particularly, the Orion's sword

Constellations:

• Auriga
• Orion
• Geminis
• Lepus

COMETS

Comet Lovejoy Q2 was spotted in Lupus, doing an isosceles triangle with Nihal and Epsilon Lepus. The comet was the southest corner of the triangle. In the same FOV, the 3 objects, plus HR 1762 and 2 other stars were seen. I could only see and spherical coma for the comet, grenish color, fuzzy, but clear to see if you know how to see it. I Begin looking for alpha lupus and Nihal.. then, finding epsilon lepus at east. Once finded, the comet is slighly to the south of the line between Nihal and epsilon Lepus. We have a comet!!!

Clusters, Asterism and Stellar Associations:

• Collinder 70: Again a nice view, but I couldn't work on it so much. Target for nexts sorties.
• NGC 1981: Beautiful open cluster at the top of Orion's sword.
• M36, M37, M38: In a moment of clouds, Auriga offered a wonderfull trio of clusters seen in the same FOV

Nebulas

• M42 Orion Nebula
• M43
• NGC 1977
• NGC 1973
• NGC 1975 All these objects in the Sword of Orion

Stars

• Betelgueuse
• Rigel
• Nihal
• Epsilon Lepus
• HR 1762
• Nair Al Saif (Iota Orionis)
• Struve 747 (HR 1887, HR 1886)
• Theta Orionis
• Castor
• Pollux

Meteor

None

Planets

Jupiter: I nice ocultation was seen!!!!! Europe eclipsed Io while observing the moons! Calixto wasnt distinguished due its proximity to the jovian disk

The Orion's Sword

After enjoying seeing the comet, I decided to see in details the Orion's Sword. What a jewel.... The binoculars showed easy M42 nebula, brigt by the presence of Theta Orionis, that, after a while, could be distinghuished in 3 components.

North, inmediately, a star marked the presence of M43. NEbula could not be seen, but the star that marks the nebula was there. Going more north, 2 bright stars marked the position of NGC 1977. NEbulas could not be seen, but the stars, clearly marked the place to make the photographies. North, 2 more stars told the positions of NGC 1973 and NGC 1975. Again, no nebula was seen, but the stars were easy to spot. Finally, over them, the open cluster NGC1981, with at least a docen of stars seen and, easely joined with Collinder 70

South of M42, Nair Al Saif (Iota Orionis) was pretty pretty bright. This multiple star system couldnt be separated in its components by the Binocular, just on bright star was spotted. To its right, Struve 747 was there, and with a lot of effort (I dont have yet my monopod, so avoid shaking the image was challenging at -8 degrees) its 2 stars were distinguished: HR 1887 and HR 1886

Incredible rich in details is the Orion's Sword....I have to look in the internet photographies of this asterism....and they were stunning....

All by all, these were 2 wonderfull hours spent....and now I know pretty much more information about Orion!

[Vox45]

Wow I really enjoy your reports.

Very academic but at the same time full of passion. I shall copy the template and use it myself for future observation as I usually just wonder around without taking any notes, thus not being able to identify anything but the obvious. I did not know that lovejoy was visible. So much to learn