31 October 2008

31 October - 1 November

Ireland	Samhain
Isle of Man	Sauin
Scotland	Samhain
Wales	Nos Galan-Gaeok

• Beginning of the Celtic year
• Enactment of rites to get omens from the coming year from the gods
• Night of the dead and of evil supernatural beings

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Observing Location	Fordham road @ Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY
Observational Period	0800 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 42° F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.48" Hg Steady Feels Like Brisk I can see boiling that is probably a combination of low altitude and bus/truck exhaust 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 Lib Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20081031.0800 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 0.993 AU m 15s Angular Size 32' 16.6" Altitude 5.5° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.40° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 260.89° Parallactic Angle (P) 24.52° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2076 Nothing Seen   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

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NASA has moved the launch date for STS-126 again. The new date is

CNN article

The HST Repair Mission can't fly before Apr09 (CNN) or May09 (BBC) because that is the earliest the repair part that is needed to resolve the recent problems will be ready. In the meantime HST is gathering and sending images back to earth. NASA feels that they will be able to fly the HST Servicing Mission at any time without having an adverse impact on future Shuttle missions to the ISS and ISS construction completion.

BBC story

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Sunspots Observed

There have been some spots this month but they are mainly smaller spots than I can see with my small binocular. I saw spots on only two days this month.

Observing Hours for the Year 2008

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	2.25	9	0.25	2.75	5	0.55	5.00	13	0.38
Feb	3.25	9	0.36	8.25	7	1.18	11.25	12	0.94
Mar	5.25	10	0.53	8.50	12	0.71	13.75	16	0.86
Apr	6.25	19	0.33	5.75	7	0.82	12.00	19	0.63
May	6.50	18	0.36	2.25	5	0.45	8.75	18	0.49
Jun	5.25	20	0.26	12.00	8	1.50	17.25	21	0.82
Jul	5.05	15	0.37	15.25	10	1.53	20.75	17	1.22
Aug	5.00	18	0.31	2.00	3	0.67	7.50	18	0.42
Sep	5.00	18	0.31	2.00	3	0.67	7.50	18	0.42
Oct	6.00	18	0.33	6.00	5	1.20	12.00	19	0.63
TOTAL	47.52	147	0.32	67.00	65	1.03	114.52	167	0.69

Climate Summary for June 2008

Temperature

There were three days this month when the high temperature was equal to or less than the normal low temperature for the day.

	High	Mean	Low
Above Normal	12 days	12 days	12 days
Normal	0 day	0 day	1 days
Below Normal	18 days	18 days	17 days
Temperature Extremes	75° F		43° F
Maximum Deviation	12° F -16° F	9° F -12° F	8° F -9° F
Mean Monthly Temperature		59° F

Precipitation

Days with measurable precipitation	9
Days with a trace of precipitation	3
Maximum one day precipitation	1.92 in
Monthly Total	3.62 in

Heating Degree Days

Above Normal	18 days
Normal	0 days
Below Normal	12 days
Maximim on a day	25 degree days
Minimum on a day	0 degree days
Maximum Deviation	11 degree days -8 degree days
Monthly Total	329 degree days

Cooling Degree Days

Above Normal	1 day
Normal	18 day
Below Normal	11 days
Maximim on a day	2 degree days
Minimum on a day	0 degree days
Maximum Deviation	1 degree days -2 degree days
Monthly Total	3 degree days