14 October 2009

Observing Location	Bryant Park
Observational Period	0530-0550 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 41° F Wind Calm Gusting to Light Breeze Humidity High Barometric Pressure 30.24" Hg Falling Feels Like Very Cool Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Looking Manhattan S Orion was standing over the dirigible mast and antennas of the Empire State building; Antares is just visible nest to the buildings on the W side of 6 Ave; Sirius is behind a tree and Procyon and Gomeisa are above the tree. Auriga is high over my right shoulder in 6 Ave. Orion’s Belt is washed out in the lights shining down into Bryant Park from the MetLife Building. I might have been able to have seen Mars but I didn’t think about planets and didn’t know where it was anyway.

0534 EDT

Astrological Twilight begins

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Ori - Gem – Lyn – UMa - CVn Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090914.0546 EDT Comments     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time 0547 EDT 0547 EDT 0550 EDT Alt. 38° 79° 10° Az. SW SE NE Mag -3.3 C a l S k y Time 0546 EDT 0547 EDT 0552 EDT Alt. 33.6° 79.4° orizon Az. 224.6° SW 142.3° SE 54.8° NE Mag -3.7 -4.4 -1.4 The Shuttle rose from behind the buildings on the W side of 6 Ave already illuminated and continued climbing past Orion’s outstretched arm and head (which I couldn’t see) then out over 42 Street high overhead before setting into the buildings on the N side of 43 Street. It was much brighter than Sirius and had a slight yellow tinge. It gave the impression of being closer than the stars it was passing, which it is, and larger, which it is not except in the arc it subtends.

0606 EDT

Astrological Twilight ends
Nautical Twilight begins

0637 EDT

Nautical Twilight ends
Civil Twilight begins

0705 EDT

Civil Twilight ends
Sunrise

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One of my friends who knows of my interest in space and astronomy sent me a link to a N0VA movie that was made on the HST Servicing Mission.

NOVA

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Observing Location	Battery Park
Observational Period	2030-2230 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Overcast Cloud Cover Temperature Wind Light Breeze Humidity High Barometric Pressure " Hg Feels Like Very Cool Transparency None Seeing II
Instruments	Harry - Charlie Peter’s DIY 6” Newtonian Telescope Takahashi 102mm F/8.2 refractor - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Tom Clabough Jon Pazmino

Tonight was a special observing Peter had set of for the Claremont School down in the Financial District as a result of meeting one of their teachers at TotL.

Peter and I traveled together and assessed the sky conditions when we got to the Staten Island Ferry and knew we were up against the wall. There was A star visible, Vega. Before we had gone down we knew it was going to be doubtful since the sky had been white most of the afternoon.

On getting to the school we were taken to the roof were they thought we might observe and we did see a few more stars from there but the roof is a play area for the younger kids so is completely enclosed in netting which would make telescopic netting very difficult.

John Pazmino gave a talk on the LCROSS mission and Peter and I left shortly after he got started to go down to Battery Park to assess the conditions there. It was looking bleak and when we arrived The Star had disappeared behind the clouds. There were a few gaps and I was able to get in a quick Great World Wide Star Count count but conditions were going south fast.

While we were setting up Peter found that his eyepieces for the Takahashi were not in his backpack as he believed so we were going to be forced to share the two eyepieces he did have for Harry.

The teacher in charge of the event did not understand the same location that Peter was describing and ended up getting to Wagner Park instead of Battery Park but persevered and eventually got down to us with about a dozen students and parents. By that time there wasn’t any clear sky left to observe in.

We trained the scopes on the Statue of Liberty and the Colgate clock so the kids could have the experience of looking through them at something. There were several of them who were really into it and one had brought his telescope and another a pair of binoculars. The kids would have lasted longer than their parents who siphoned them off at various times until it was only the teacher and one older student left and they left as well.

The teacher is interested in trying to reschedule the observing part of the event in a month. We will not have the lecture and it will be getting darker earlier so we will be able to start observing earlier and maybe have more students participate.

Great World Wide Star Count

1818 EDT Sunset Civil Twilight Begins 1845 EDT Civil Twilight Ends Nautical Twilight Begins 1917 EDT Nautical Twilight Ends Astronomical Twilight Begins 1949 EDT Astronomical Twilight Ends Observation 339 Date Time 20091014 2038 EDT Location Lat.: 40.701040° Long: -74.015266° Conditions Broken Clouds becoming Overcast Limiting Magnitude 4 Comments Through a gap in the clouds I was able to see all five of the Northern Cross stars. This observation was made 20 minutes after the close of the official observation window but was submitted anyway.

There was a double flare from Iridium 21 that I had hoped to have seen but I think it would have been blocked by buildings even if the sky had been clear. This was another case where a bright flare was listed in CalSky but not in Heavens-Above. This pair of flares iwas unusual in that they eccurred several minutes apart so should have been two distinct events rather than the prolonged flares I have seen before when observing double flares.

	Flare 1	Flare 2
Time	2018:46 EST	2022:26
Alt.	61.3°	23.8°
Az.	21.6° ESE	13.8° NNE
Mag.	0	-2.8
Surface	Solar Panels	MMA2