21 February 2008

The Department of Defense says that the Navy launched an ABM around 2228 EST last night from the USS Lake Erie out in the pacific and did hit the falling spy satellite USA 193. They say it can take up to 48 hours before they are certain but their initial feeling is that they did rupture the hydrazine fuel tank. As of 0630 EST today they say that pieces of the satellite are beginning to fall over the Atlantic and that none of the pieces they have been able to find with radar appear to be larger than a football. Links

• CNN
• BBC
• BBC

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Observing Location	Chief Dennis L. Devlin Park, Bronx, NY
Observational Period	1000-1015 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 39°F Wind 21 MPH gusting to 32 MPH Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.83" Hg Rising Feels Like Cold Wind Chill 29°F Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Aqr Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080221.1000 EST Comments Distance Light Time 0.989 AU 8m 13s Angular Size 32' 24.4" Altitude 30.8° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -7.02° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 14.54° Parallactic Angle (P) -19.00° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2066 Nothing Seen. Where is the start of the new cycle?   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

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I was reading Petre's blog and followed some of his other blog links and came across this youtube representation of the astronomy targets for the week by the Astronomical League. It has a nice segment on yesterday's eclipse.

I haven't found a link to this that you can get to it quickly each week.