20 July 2008

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1115-1130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Haze Temperature 87° F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.94" Hg Falling Feels Like H3 It is very warm even in the shade. The breeze isn’t doing much to mitigate the temperature. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080720.1115 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 31.9" Altitude 59.9° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.88° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 179.34° Parallactic Angle (P) 6.23° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen Space Weather is still indicating that Group 1000 is there but I can’t even see it on the high resolution SOHO image.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

---

Greg Smith graphic from Wikepedia I have been listening to the cicadas singing and have been wondering if there is any periodicity in their song so I started timing their calls while reading at home.

Start	Stop	Duration
0817:43	0817:49	6s
0818:33	0813:41	8s
0823:45	0823:52	7s
0824:06	0824:11	5s
0824:38	0824:48	10s
0825:00	0825:08	8s
0825:20	0825:28	8s
0825:46	0825:53	7s
Average Duration		7s

Then it dawned on me that I was only hearing a portion of the calls through the insulated windows (which aren’t doing much to keep the heat outside) so I would be better off making my timings outside. So when I went out to observe the sun I moved to a shaded bench and sat there for 45 minutes making additional timings.

Start	Stop	Duration
1122:09	1122:14	5s
1123:01	1123:07	6s
1126:59	1127:07	6s
1127:26	1127:33	7s
1127:35	1127:39	4s
1127:45	1127:52	7s
1127:52	1127:58	6s
1128:00	1128:07	7s
1128:55	1128:59	4s
1129:34	1129:40	6s
1130:09	1130:15	6s
1130:47	1130:51	4s
1136:40	1136:46	6s
Average Duration		6s

The results weren’t that much different and I came to the conclusion that the better times probably came from inside the apartment because of the insulated windows. They only let the loudest calls in, which were probably from the closest insects. I suspect that the short calls recorded outside were from more distant insects and I was not hearing the full call.

Regarding frequency of call:

the data do not permit me to make an assessment since I can’t be sure that I am hearing the same insect every time.

Regarding duration of call:

calls lasted about 6.5 seconds.

?

does temperature have an impact on the duration of the call?

Wikipedia reference