17 November 2009

Observing Location	CSP The police stopped by at 0230 EST to chase me out of the park. I can’t be sure but it may have been because the officer was chauffeuring the sergeant and had to go by the book. Fortunately all they did was chase me out of the park because when I changed out of my shorts before heading out I forgot to take my ID out of the cargo pocket.
Observational Period	0045-00230 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 48° F Wind alternating between Gentle Breeze and Moderate Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.16" Hg Feels Like Cold Transparency Fair Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

2207 EST 16Nov09

Mars Rises

0045 EST

• Aur is high overhead. I can see all three of The Kids
• Gem and Ori are below Aur, Gem slightly higher. I can see the Foot stars of Castor and all three of the Sword stars of Ori.
• Cnc is only notable because Mars is there. It is a little higher than CMa to its south. I eventually saw the body stars of CMa but not the head.
• CMi is half way between CMi and Gem.
• Leo is only remarkable by Regulus and β Leo which are ~10°-15° above the local horizon in the ENE.
• Cas is ~45° up in the NW sitting on her head
• Perseus hs high overhead opposite Aur. I saw a chain of three stars coming off of Mirfac (δ Per, ε Per, and ζ Per) that ended in a wide naked-eye double of ~0.5° separation (ζ Per and ο Per).
• M45 was farther on at the end of the chain and lower down Aldeberan. I made out the large V of The Hyades.

Target Mars Constellation Cnc Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091117.0045 EST Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) 1.05525275 AU m s Distance (from Sun) 1.52 AU Angular Size 8.9" Illuminated 89.5% Magnitude 0.32 Central Meridian 72.64° Altitude 30° Meridian graphic

Target Leonids Meteors Constellation Category Meteors Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091117.0045 EST Comments Stellarium graphic This morning was the peak of the Leonids meteor shower which is active from through. The Taurids meteors are also active from through. This was supposed to have been a good year for the Leonids because yesterday was New Moon and the Los Angeles Times said we could see up to 30 meteors per hour. They got the “up to” part right but my hourly rate did not anywhere approach their limit. CNN says the best show will be in Asia Time Period Leonids Taurids 0045-0100 0 0 0100-0200 3 0 0200-2030 1 1 The first meteor was seen early in the hour. It was broad, ~6° lon, and bright white. It moved horizontally across the sky to the south through Mon. The second meteor occurred after 0130 when the sky was heavily covered with clouds and was only seen as a flash of light behind the cloud around where CMi should have been. It did not look like the flash of a strobe light from a plane so I am interpreting it as a meteor. The third meteor was falling somewhat vertically through Hya and was ~3° in length and bright white. It occurred toward the close of the hour. The last Leonid was also a vertical meteor falling through Leo. It was short and yellowish. That happened around 0115 EST> The last meteor was a Taurid. It was falling from 1:00 to 7:00 down the back of CMi. It was bright and had a green tinge to it. I concentrated my view to the ESE because that is where the sky was clear without having to look high overhead. By 0130 EST 50%-75% of my sky was covered with cloud and it didn’t look like they were going to go anywhere soon. A small cloud came in from the N and camped out over Leo and grew. Eventually is moved out to the ENE but was followed by cloud filling in from the SW behind me. By 0215 EST it was mostly clear but my shoulders and neck were sore from the cold and looking up and I decided to leave after spotting Saturn. I never spotted Saturn but the police sealed my resolve.

0214 EST

Saturn Rises

Target Saturn Constellation Vir Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091117.0114 EST Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) 10.0200518 AU h m Distance (from Sun) 10.017 AU Angular Size 16.8" Ring Angular Size 38.6" Ring Inclination ° Magnitude 1.32 Altitude 0° Central Meridian System III 299.30° Stellarium graphic If Saturn rose, and I have to assume that it did, it did so into clouds and haze and was invisible to me. I wouldn’t have been able to detect it, but in the graphic the rings have opened up considerably since I last saw Saturn here on 9Nov09.

0509 EST

Astronomical Twilight begins

0538 EST

Venus Rises

0542 EST

Astronomical Twilight ends
Nautical Twilight begins

0615 EST

Nautical Twilight ends
Civil Twilight begins

0645 EST

Civil Twilight ends
Sunrise

0748 EST

Moon rises

I took a couple of azimuth readings to see how different my compass is from the reality of things.

EST	Target	Az.	Compass
0045	Mars	89° 23’	060°
0230	Sirius	172° 47’	138°

Compass	060	138
Deviation subtract westerly	?	?
Magnetic	060	138
Variation subtract westerly	13.5	13.5
True	046.5°	124.5°
Deviation = deflection of the compass needle due to local ferrous material Variation = generalized deflection of the compass needle due to anomalies in the magnetic field of the earth

Even after adding in variation to my readings I can’t make them come anywhere close to the true azimuth as shown in Carted du Ciel.

I should have taken a reading on Polaris as well.