Jupiter, Venus, Moon, and NASA (Toronto)

I wanted good sight lines this evening. I wanted to try to catch the crescent Moon but knew it would be very low. I wanted to spot the International Space Station and the Shuttle. I knew the ISS was to start low, at 10° elevation, and only rise to 20°.

I checked out Google Maps in the late afternoon and decided to try the area near me, the flats north of St. Clair and Runnymede. I jumped in the car at 5:00 PM and drove to the turnaround at the end of Rockcliffe Court. It proved a pretty good location. Nothing was higher than 5° to the south-west, west, and north. Due south was a bit of an issue with the houses and trees along Terry Drive. Aside of a bunch of scattered sodium lights, it would work well.

(Crappy photo by me using Samsung Digimax 800. I set it on the roof of the car but, clearly, it is still shaky. That said, if you look closely, you can see Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon, to the right of the centre street light.)

Jupiter and Venus were very bright in the darkening, prismatic sky. About 2 degrees apart. Venus was a bit to the right of Jupiter, at about a 5° angle from the vertical. Through binoculars, Venus was intense, very white in colour. I tried to see Jovian moons but it was too jiggly hand-held. Forgot to bring my tripod.

5:14 PM. As I scanned the trees a bit to the right, and the thin clouds above, not expecting to see anything, I spotted Luna! It was about 5° above the horizon. Wow! I could see, naked eye, a very thin crescent, hovering in the dark clouds. Amazing. The Moon was about 19° away from Venus. It was fantastic through the binoculars. The Moon's age is 2.3 days! I think that's a record for me.

At 5:23 PM, the Moon was dipping into the distant trees. The thick air was colouring it. Turning north, I readied to observe the flyovers. My mobile phone rang. The display showed Tony's mobile; Grace spoke. They wanted to know the flyover details. Huh. The RASC Toronto Centre past-president is calling me for tips... I told him I'd call him back when I spotted it.

At 5:39 PM, I lost sight of the object. I picked it up at about NW compass bearing, 18 or 19° elevation, moving horizontally, fairly bright, tan or beige in colour. As it passed compass N, it looked like it was heading straight for Capella (mag 0.05). It was about the same brightness at that time. As it moved into from Ursa Major to Lynx it brightened a bit. I also noticed it flickering. But that could have been the clouds. It fell off quickly.

I phoned Tony during the pass and described the location and direction. It took him a few seconds but he spotted it.

I don't know if that was Station or the Shuttle. Heavens-Above.com said the ISS would go over from 5:32 to 5:36. Randy, from the RASC Mississauga Centre, said the Shuttle would be ahead of it by about 100 seconds plus... I suspect I was looking at the Station.

I waited another 20 minutes... Nothing. I must have missed the other object.

After garaging the car, I noted that Venus was now left of Jupiter, about 5° from the vertical. I wondered if Venus was moving really fast but I realised later it was just the rotation of the sky.

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Checked my notes. No records broken this evening. The Moon we all saw while camping at Bon Echo on 6 Aug 2005 was 0.9 days old! Wow.