| Observing Location | TotL
I stopped six times on my way uo to TotL to make Great World Wide Star Count observations. |
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| Observational Period | 1900-2100 EDT |
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| Atmospheric Conditions |
| Cloud Cover | Clear
becoming
Broken Clouds |
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| Temperature | 57° F |
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| Wind | Light Breeze |
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| Humidity | Moderate |
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| Barometric Pressure | 30.21" Hg
Rising |
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| Feels Like | Cool autumn evening |
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| Instruments | |
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| Observing Party | Charlie Ridgway
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| Great World Wide Star Count |
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- 1823 EDT
- Sunset
Civil Twilight Begins
- 1850 EDT
- Civil Twilight Ends
Nautical Twilight Begins
- 1922 EDT
- Nautical Twilight Ends
Astronomical Twilight Begins
| Observation | 111 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
1923 EDT |
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| Location | Bryant ParkK
Lat.: 40.753807°
Long: -73.983644° |
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| Conditions | I was looking up into the floodlights shining down on Bryant Park from the MetLife building across the street. |
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| Limiting Magnitude | Mag. 0.77 |
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| Comments | |
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| Observation | 112 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
1928 EDT |
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| Location | Times Square
Lat.: 40.758880°
Long: -73.983644° |
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| Conditions | The whole of the Times Square area is terribly light-polluted and even impacts on our observing up at TotL over 2 km away. |
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| Limiting Magnitude | |
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| Comments | I couldn't see any stars at all due to all the advertisements on the surrounding buildings. I had to report this as cloudy since they don't have a category for tat much light pollution. |
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| Observation | 114 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
1940 EDT |
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| Location | Columbus Circle
Lat.: 40.768110°
Long: -73.981856° |
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| Conditions | This location isn't too badly light-polluted since the surrounding buildings don't have many decorative lights and you only have to contend with the cobra heads. |
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| Limiting Magnitude | Mag 2 |
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| Comments | |
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| Observation | 115 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
1951 EDT |
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| Location | W 72 St just inside the park
Lat.: 40.776195°
Long: -73.975838° |
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| Conditions | There is a lot of ligt on 72 St at the intersection but it falls off quickly as you move into the park. |
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| Limiting Magnitude | Mag. 2.46 |
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| Comments | Saw three stars of the cross |
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- 1953 EDT
- Astronomical Twilight Ends
| Observation | 118 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
1958 EDT |
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| Location | Bathesda Fountain
Lat.: 40.776195°
Long: -73.972110° |
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| Conditions | This is a very dark area. There are no street lights around and except for being down in a hole with a limited horizon and no public interaction this might be a better observing location than TotL. |
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| Limiting Magnitude | Mag. 4.84 |
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| Comments | I saw 2 stars in the V behind Deneb |
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| Observation | 119 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
2003 EDT |
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| Location | E 72 St just inside the park
Lat.: 40.772635°
Long: -73.967532° |
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| Conditions | Conditions here are much the same as at W 72 St. |
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| Limiting Magnitude | Mag. 3.98 |
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| Comments | I saw all of the stars of the cross but none in the V behind Deneb. |
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| Observation | |
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Date
Time | 20091011
2017 EDT |
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| Location | Outside the playground S of the Metropolitan Museum
Lat.: 40.777638°
Long: -73.964084° |
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| Conditions | This is a dark location nestled in trees with only one street light nearby although the side of the museum is lit up for security reasons |
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| Limiting Magnitude | Mag. 4.55 |
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| Comments | This observation not reported as it is too close to both TotL and E 72 St. |
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| Observation | 120 |
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Date
Time | 20091011
2019 EDT |
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| Location | TotL
Lat.: 40.782462°
Long: -73.965591° |
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| Conditions | Low street lights on either side of the observing location |
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| Limiting Magnitude | |
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| Comments | |
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| Target | Iridium 14 Flare |
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| Constellation | Cam |
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| Category | Satellite |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091011.2040 EDT |
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| Comments |
| | Heavens Above | CalSky |
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| Time | | 2040:45 EDT |
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| Alt. | | 18.3° |
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| Az. | | 010.9°
N |
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| Mag. | | -5.8 |
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| Surface | | MMA2 |
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This flare does not appear in the Heavens Above listing. When I saw it I assumed I was seeing the Iridium 75 flare until the second satellite showed up, then I didn’t know what I was seeing. I had set my watch alarm for 2040 EDT and didn’t check it when either of the flares occurred.
The satellite appeared to be dropping vertically. It appeared brighter than the Iridium 75 flare and the decay did not appear to be uniform.
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| Target | Iridium 75 Flare |
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| Constellation | Cam |
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| Category | Satellite |
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Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091011.2041 EDT |
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| Comments |
| | Heavens Above | CalSky |
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| Time | 2041:44 EDT | 2041:47 EDT |
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| Alt. | 16° | 15.4° |
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| Az. | 010°
N | 009.6°
N |
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| Mag. | -5 | -4.5 |
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| Surface | | MMA2 |
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This flare lasted longer than the flare of Iridium 14, had an extended but uniform decay and started a little above and to the right of Iridium 14.
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Both of the above flares occurred closer to Polaris than either my compass or my estimate of the offset from Polaris indicated they should have been. My compass points ~20° W of Polaris from here. NOAA indicates that the declination at TotL is 16° 7' W. I know there are drain pipes running beneath the pavement in that area but if anything I would expect them to deflect the compass needle to the east where I was standing. And adding the declination to the listed azimuth for the flares would have had me looking even farther east.
Acorns are falling;
Squirrels are having a feast:
Winter approaches.
Charlie Ridgway |
I have a add-on for Firefox that displays earthquakes by causing the browser to shake. The stronger the quake the longer the shaking continues. I have been noticing a lot of shaking going on lately. In Google Earth I have display of earthquakes turned on and this afternoon was looking at the earthquakes they are showing close to NYC. The only one that was there was off the NJ coast. When I got home tonight there was a quake displayed in upstate NY. I figured it was probably because I was zoomed to a different level where lesser quakes were being displayed but when I clicked on it the bubble said it was a quake that had just occurred yesterday and probably just got included on an update tonight. I checked the NJ quake which I had assumed was historic and found that it had just occurred on Friday.
| 20091009.1723 | Richter 2.1 | offshore NJ |
| 20091010.2149 | Richter 2.4 | Lewis County, NY
SW of Harrisville
NW of Lewis |
I got a bag of M&Ms on the way home tonight. I don’t particularly like chocolate, and my dentist hates it, but it is supposed to be a good antioxidant so I figure it is a neutral food. On opening the bag and pouring its contents into a bowl I was struck by how many more blue candies and fewer red and brown there seemed to be. So I had to count them and create a chart of the results. Since I don’t have another blog for scientific studies like this the data will have to live here.
I found that orange and brown candies seemed to melt more than others. Deformed candies seemed to be fairly evenly distributed among all of the colors although I didn’t perform an analysis of this.
