General Session - July 7/8, 2018

Buffalo at Rocky Mountain House Historic Site & Campground
© Judy Black. D600, ISO 100, 1/640 sec @ f/6.3
 Constellation: Aquila, Cygnus, Lyra, Perseus
Asterism: Summer Triangle
Planet: Jupiter, Venus (in Leo)
Open Cluster: Alpha Persei Cluster
Noctilucent Clouds
National Park chairs overlooking historic Site & Campground (in the distance)
© Judy Black. Nikon D600, ISO 100, 1/160 sec @ f/8.0

Location: Rocky Mountain House Historic Site & Campground, AB
     (52.4388º N, 114.9851º W)
Date: 2018-07-07/08
Time: 10:30 PM - 2:45 AM MDT
Equipment: Visual + Binoculars, 10x42 IS
Transparency: Very Good (4)
Seeing: Very Good (4)
Temperature: 11º C - 8º C
SQM: 13.59 - 20.59
Very little if any breeze. Dry air so seeing and transparency were fairly good. Only a few clouds on the horizon towards the Rocky Mountains.

We were camped on an open flat field that was adjacent to the fenced-in buffalo pen/range and close to the historic site.

Constellation: Aquila, Cygnus, Lyra, Perseus
Asterism: Summer Triangle
Planet: Jupiter, Venus (in Leo)
Open Cluster: Alpha Persei Cluster
Noctilucent Clouds

Jupiter (in Libra)
Time: 10:55 PM MDT
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars 
Thought I saw all 4 moons but in reality only saw three. Jupiter was at 2 o'clock to Zubenelgenubi (α1 and α2). What I thought was a planet was later identified (believe it or not) as TYC 577-0952-1.

Venus (in Leo)
Time: 10:55 PM MDT
Instrument: Visual only
Venus was 10º above the horizon with approximately a 10º separation from Regulus.

    

Cygnus
Time: 11:16 PM MDT
Instrument: Visual only
S&T Chart Reference: 62, 73, H
Deneb and Glenah were very clearly seen, as were some of the stars in the wings.

Aquila
Time: 11:16 PM MDT
Instrument: Visual only
S&T Chart Reference: 64, 65, 66
Aquila was easily identified as Altair could easily be located. Due to the brightness of the sky at this hour of night at approximately 52º N altitude, not all the stars could be seen for this constellation.

Summer Triangle (DAVe)
Time: 11:20 PM MDT
Instrument: Visual only
Used binoculars to look at Vega and its adjacent Lyrae stars. Visually located Deneb and Altair.

Lyra
Time: 11:16 PM MDT
Instrument: Visual only
S&T Chart Reference: 63
Used my binoculars after locating Vega to see the double-double at epsilon Lyrae. I certainly saw the double stars but did not see their double. Also saw δ1, δ2, and ζ Lyrae. Did not look for Sulafat (γ Lyrae) nor Sheliak (β Lyrae).

Perseus + Alpha Persei Cluster
Time: 12:40 AM MDT
Instrument: Visual only
S&T Chart Reference: 2, 13
Visually saw the stars in Perseus towards the north. Used my binoculars to identify Mirfak and its glorious open cluster, Alpha Persei Cluster.

Noctilucent Clouds (NLC)
Time: 2:21 AM MDT
Instrument: Visual 
The sun had already set in the west and the remnants of light indicating its last attempts to illuminate our sky was barely evident.

However, 20º - 25º to the NW were clouds that were very well illuminated - and it wasn't the sunset! Turns out it was noctilucent clouds. These electric blue clouds also called "polar mesospheric clouds". Ice crystals at about 80 - 85 km above Earth reflect the Sun's light during a period of time from about 90 minutes to about 2 hours after sunset or before sunrise. This occurs at latitudes 50º - 70º north and south. We were at 52.3488º N. The clouds are visible only when they are illuminated by sunlight below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in Earth's shadow.

A beautiful sight. A moving experience in the badlands of Alberta.

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