25 February 2008

Observing Location	McGraw Ave @ White Plains Road
Observational Period	1710-1725 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 47°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Barometric Pressure 29.88" Hg Rising Feels Like Very Mild It feels like spring although there is still a lot of snow piled up around the curbs still left over from the last storm. Transparency Excellent Seeing I
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 2008 EST Comments Distance Light Time 0.990 AU 8m 14s Angular Size 32' 22.0" Altitude 5.3° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -7.16° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 304.76° Parallactic Angle (P) -20.54° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2067 Nothing Seen The sun was just starting to set into the buildings to the south of the Cross Bronx Expressway.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

Target Iridium 20 Flare Constellation Cet Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080225.1723 EST Comments I am not sure if I saw this flare or not. At that time I saw a bright flash in the area where the flare should have been. It faded very quickly as I would expect an Iridium flare to do in a bright sky and only around 95° away from the Sun. Then there was another longer flash and more flashes followed. CalSky didn’t give any indication that there would be multiple flashes. Between the flashes I thought I saw a dark gray dot. It was like the flashing of the “Midnight Sun” beneath a police helicopter comight straight at you except that the flashes weren’t regular enough and the track of the object was across my field of vision. I don’t think a satellite is big enough to be seen naked-eye as a dark dot even if you know exactly where to look. I wasn’t able to find it in the binocular. I suspect that I was seeing the sun glinting off of the wings and/or fuselage of a plane but none of the other planes in that area exhibited any flashes and I didn’t see any colored lights in the interval between the flashes. Alt. 42.3° Az. 206.4° Mag. -6.5

1740 EST	Sunset Civil Twilight begins
1808 EST	Civil Twilight ends Nautical Twilight begins
1840 EST	Nautical Twilight ends Astronomical Twilight begins
1912 EST	Astronomical Twilight ends