St. John - 2015 - astronomy on the water

Planning the Trip

My wife and I lured our son, Andy, and his wife Melinda, and her parents, Bill and Sandra on a February trip to the Caribbean where I was planning to use my 8" dobsonian to view some of my favorite southern objects. February 2015 was a typical winter, but we all managed to arrive in St. John on time. I had rented a fabulous villa from VRBO http://www.vrbo.com/464548 that was on the relatively less inhabited south side, on Rendezvous Bay with a killer view of the turquois water of the bay in the daytime, and a perfect southern horizon at night with no visible lights to hinder observation.

Enjoying the Black Skies

Each night the sky was beautifully clear and dark; and none of the others had experience with astronomy. So we began with planets. Venus and Mars were low on the western horizon and we all got good at picking them out in the early twilight. By the time the sky got dark, Jupiter was high enough for good viewing. I got them excited to watch Io come out from Jupiter's shadow. The north and south bands showed nicely. During the next few nights we had a look at galaxies in Leo, Virgo, and Andromeda as well as the Orion and Crab nebulae. Comet Lovejoy was about 5th magnitude and not far from the Andromeda galaxy. It was interesting to compare the two and point out that this was why Messier made his list in the first place. One morning I got up before sunrise and had a look at omega Centauri, the hamburger galaxy and other sights in Centaurus. Saturn was very nice as the air was still and, at 180x, the image seemed rock solid.

Enjoying the Turquoise Water

Each day we drove around to one of the bays either on the north side or south side. Hawksnest and Cinnamon bays were fairly stirred up with waves, typical of winter. Maho and Francis were much calmer and clearer. We also went to Little Lameshur bay on the south side. The latter was a bit dissappointing from a snorkeling perspective, but we did see some very unusual cuttlefish. One day we drove to the top of the mountain and hiked down the Reef Bay Trail and cut off to see some interesting petroglyphs. Worth doing.

All in all, this was a really excellent trip. The astonomy was good, the water was good, and the company was good.