cut short (Blue Mountains)

Many people arrived today, in advance of the Canada Day holiday.

9:46 PM, Thursday 30 June 2016. Viewed Jupiter. I discovered there was a shadow transit happening. We viewed Io's shadow.

9:54 PM. I tried the Sync action from SkyTools 3 Pro and it broke. On the previous occasion, I had done it only inside TheSky 6.

9:59. We took in Saturn.

10:14. Viewed Mars for a bit. Then went back to Saturn. I still couldn't see Tethys.

10:16. I noticed that when I did the sync command in TS6 it transmitted to ST3P. But it didn't seem to be able to keep. Strange. The other night was great.

10:35. Set up the DSLR for fireflies...

I fired up ISS Detector. No station passes... I reviewed the upcoming Iridium flares.

Tony popped in.

A little cloudy.

10:51. We saw a very bright eastbound satellite go through Aquila just before the Iridium event. People wondered if it was the International Space Station. No...

10:52. We saw the Iridium southbound. Steve saw it but I missed the flare.

10:53. I saw a meteor travelling westbound.

From Heavens Above, I reviewed flyovers. Ah ha. The China Tiangong 1 station, mag 1.0, started at 22:47 at 10 degrees elevation in the WSW, culminated at 22:50, 55°, S, and ended at 22:52, 23° E. That's a first for me.

11:17. Viewed HR 6267 in Ursa Minor. B and C was no problem. Could not split A and B. Not for certain. Bad seeing. I noticed a little gaggle to the bottom-right or north-west including GSC 04572-1532. I didn't think this should be on my DS candidates list...

11:31. Lovely light gold and... dull blue in TV, aquamarine in C14. Wide pair. Nice field in the wide. It would be a good one for the DS programme.

[ed: Damn it. Did not note the name!]

[ed: By elimination, I believe I determined it was delta Boötis. Which I have view previously, with similar results. And which is already in my DS master list...]

11:37. Slewed to Messier 13 (M13) for new (renewing?) member Brian. He wanted to see the Andromeda Galaxy. Steve encouraged him to wait a bit.

11:44. Checked my "star party showpieces" list. Huh. "Whirlpool" was not included. Added M51. Or tried. It was not showing in the observing list. Weird. I also saw 2 instances of Miram. What's going on? Some corruption? Restarted ST3P.

[ed: Successfully added NGC 5195 to the list. Added M51 by searching for the Whirlpool.]

11:53. Went to the tight double 41 Ophiuchi. Could not split.

12:00 AM, Friday 1 July 2016. Happy Canada Night!

Tried again for 41 Oph. Could not split.

12:13 AM. I added more quasars for my ST3P lists.

Ian and I tried for B1422+231 in Boötes. It was about 2/5ths of the way from Arcturus, between ε and ρ. And we were clouded out! Boo!

1:06. Packed it in. We lost the sky.

Retrieved the DSLR.

2:08. Crawled into bed.

2:33. Grabbed Halifax weather data.