On May 3rd I went to the I94 overpass on Ellsworth and observed the Planet alignment of Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune & Jupiter. I was able to find Neptune due to its close proximity to Jupiter.
May 5th I took three of my Junior Lowbrows Fred Covel, Tre’von Covel & Kiyell Hopes my Nephews to the Ryder Star Party. Visibility was bad at a 3.5. I bought Fred a Celestron My First Scope and John the Ryder’s Manager showed him how to use it we used my 114mm Newton to observe the Moon which was a Waxing Gibbous 86% Illuminated. We could distinctly see The Rays of Tyco & Copernicus. With the 25mm we observed the area around Mare Tranquility. I was able to see the Craters: Messier A&B, Guttenburg, Goclenivs, Langrenus & Taruntius.
Through the break in the clouds we could view Saturn with Titan to the Northeast May 10th I joined SLOOH and viewed M35, NGC2158, M82 and Algeiba.
My name is Fred Covel and my brothers and I are learning astronomy from our Uncle George, who bought us a My First Telescope and he took us to Ryder’s Hobby Shop where John the store manager showed me how to use the telescope. Uncle George & John both had Telescopes there and we looked at Saturn & the Moon. Uncle George showed me “The Basketball Player” which was named by my Aunt Patricia. Uncle George told me that Mare meant Seas and said that Mare Serenitatis is the head, Mare Tranquillitis the Body and Mares Nectaris & Mare Crisium as the legs and Mare Crisium as the Basketball. Using the big Lens I watched Tyco and Copernicus Rays they were Beautiful.
May 16th we went to Peach Mountain and we saw Saturn again but through different Telescopes (seeing Saturn at different angels through different type of Scopes). One of the members was looking at Arcturus and then he told me how to use a spotting scope to find objects. He had me find Saturn when I did Uncle George told me how to put it in the scope so I could see all of Saturn. We also went to Eastern Michigan University and we saw M13, Gamma Leo and the Beehive Cluster which was better in the finder scope but cool in the Telescope. We also watched the Space Station pass and also a Satellite pass below the Bowl of The Big Dipper.