small joy (Toronto)

The City Observing Session in High Park tonight was a bust, from the point of view of no members attending and setting up telescopes for a few hours.

I had the 'scope but I wasn't going to set it up just for myself. Tony didn't bring observing equipment; just the happy dog.

So, I ended up doing limited observing, mostly whole sky, at 1x power, wide field, naked eye viewing.

Brief looks through my cheapo binos were ultimately frustrating. I had elected to not bring a tripod, my eyeglasses would fog after a few seconds, and my eyes were watering (due to temperature, wind, and/or allergies). Enjoyed the Pleiades in the 6° field.

True some scattered clouds to the west, I observed Jupiter setting and the waxing crescent Moon. I knew Neptune was up there, to the right (west) of Jupiter; Uranus to the east.

I observed the ISS flyover on schedule at 6:51 PM. In the first 30 seconds, it brightened incredibly. I estimated mag -5 to -6! Maybe more. Then it resumed typical brightness as it moved overheard. It faded near Pleiades. That was one of the better passes I've seen. When Tony arrived about 15 or 20 minutes later, he said he had watched the first part of it from his back yard.

I observed a bright orange Mars and a scintillating Sirius rising over the city. I pointed out Mars to Tony. Surprised him a little.

As I was getting oriented with the winter constellations, I spotted the Andromeda galaxy overhead naked eye (again, when my eyes weren't watering). The Great Square of Pegasus so high made it easy. Orion was obvious, Auriga too; Taurus looked different (probably due to poor contrast); Gemini too, the twins parallel to the horizon. Cassieopeia was high up. I was pretty sure I was seeing Polaris but could not make out all of Ursa Minor, just β (beta) and γ (gamma). Ugh, grim, that's a mag 3.1 sky... I knew the Big Bear was low, climbing. But I couldn't see any of it for the trees and orange glow.

The bright lights were on over the ice rink but in general did not interfere with the south, west, and north views. Especially with the winter coat hood pulled forward.

Clouds came and went. Not ideal conditions. But the best seen in some time. By 8:30, it was completely clouded over.