4 March 2009

I don't understand this. It appeared on the NASA web page yesterday.

In anticipation of a firm launch date, the astronauts will be preflight quarantined in Johnson's Astronaut Quarantine Facility Thursday evening to keep them isolated from potential infections.

I think they have to spend five days in there. But then they fly trom Texas to Florida and stand out on the runway in the open air for a press briefing.

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Observing Location	Bowery @ Houston St, New York, NY
Observational Period	1715-1730 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 34° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.30" Hg Falling Feels Like Cold The sky is very white in the SW where Venus is. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Venus Constellation Psc Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1715 EST Comments Even in a very white sky Venus was easily seen. I crossed the street and couldn’t recover it, assumedly it was hidden by the buildings on the south side of Houston St. Object Class Classical Planet Phase Waning Crescent Elongation 31.57° E % Illuminated 15.4% Distance Light Time (from Earth) 0.3480573 AU 2m 53.70s Distance (from Sun) AU Angular Size 47.92" Magnitude -4.6 Altitude 37.0198°

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Observing Location	Mulberry Branch Library (ML), Mulberry Street @ Jersey Street, New York, NY Lat.: 40° 43’ 25.43” Long.: -73° 59’ 43.9” This location seems to be darker than Bowery @ E 3 St. I was able to see Orion’s Sword and more stars in Gemini tonight than I have previously seen.
Observational Period	1930-2015 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 32° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.34" Hg Rising Feels Like Cool It feels milder now than it did when I was out previously. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye – Charlie Naked-eye - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

I was walking north on Bowery and heard someone call my name and it was Kin. He was going over to Mulberry Street Branch Library so I walked with him. When we left there it was nice and dark and I looked up and saw the Gemini twins so we did a little naked-eye observing along the ecliptic.

You only get to see a small strip of sky on this narrow street so we had to move south a bit to get better views to the west between buildings. We tried for Arcturus but it was always blocked by buildings.

Target Gemini Constellation Gem Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Castor 1.58 ε Mebsuta 2.98 μ Tejat 2.88 var η Propus 3.20 1   4.20 β Pollux 1.14 γ Alhena 1.93 ξ Alzirr 3.36

Target Orion Constellation Ori Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag.   α Betelgeux 0.50 var   γ Bellatrix 1.64   ζ Alnitak 1.77 Orions Belt ε Alnilam 1.70 δ Mintaka 2.23 var β Rigel 0.12 var   θ   3.70 Orion’s Sword   Trapezium Great Nebula   iota&; Hatysa 2.80

Target Taurus Constellation Tau Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Aldeberan 0.85 var β Elnath 1.65 ζ Alheka 3.00 I detected the Pleiades by its shape but was not able to identify individual stars.

Target Auriga Constellation Aur Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments   Bayer Name Mag.   α Capella 0.08   ε Almazz 2.99 var The Kids ζ Sadatoni 3.75 var η   3.17 ι Hassaleh 2.69   β Menkalina 1.90   θ 2.62

Target Moon Constellation Tau Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1930 EST Comments I thought the Moon was over β Tau but on pulling up an interactive sky chart to confirm that I see that it was over α Tau. That throws into doubt my observations of Taurus and Auriga. Lunation 1065 Phase First Quarter Age 7.95481d Distance Light Time (from earth) 369,887.2 km 1.23s Elongation 99.12° E % Illuminated 58.1% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) ° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) ° Libration in Latitude ° Libration in Longitude ° Magnitude -10.3 Angular Size 32' 18.55" Altitude 72.0340°

Target Sirius Constellation CMa Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Sirius -1.46

Target Big Dipper Constellation UMa Category Asterism Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Dubhe 1.79 β Merak 2.37 γ Phecda (Phad) 2.44 δ Megrez 3.31 ε Alioth 1.77 var ζ Mizar 2.09 η AAlkaid 1.86 I looked for but was not able to split Alcor from Mizar.

When we had finished observing we walked north on Lafayette street to Union Square. There we split up and I went back down Bowery. Down around E 6 St I saw Arcturus and down by E 4 St I figured out what Procion was.

If I had a better knowledge of the sky or had had a sky chart with me I might have found Leo and Comet Lulin which should have been up by then but might still be too faint to be seen naked-eye from The City.

Target Arcturus Constellation Boo Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.2015 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Arcturus -0.04

Target Procion Constellation CMi Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.2015 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Procion 0.38