1 November 2009

After Te Rain The rain has ceased, and in my room    The sunshine pours an airy flood; And on the church's dizzy vane The ancient cross is bathed in blood. From out the dripping ivy leaves,    Antiquely carven, gray and high, A dormer, facing westward, looks    Upon the village like an eye. And now it glimmers in the sun,    A globe of golden, a disk, a speck; And in the belfry sits a dove    With purple ripples on her neck. Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Observing Location	TotL It was a mistake trying to observe from here on Marathon Sunday. It was fine once you got here but getting here is the problem. The whole SW corner of the park was a mess with police telling you you couldn’tgo anywhere but west. After walking out in the streets against oncoming traffic for a half mile because the sidewalks were all paracaded off I finally was able to get over to CPW and into the park up at 86 St. I wasn’t surprised that Peter wasn’t there given what he has to carry and the restricted access to te park. We should said CSP.
Observational Period	1745-1830 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Isolated Clouds with General Haze Temperature 53° F Wind Light Breezegusting to Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.17" Hg Rising Feels Like Mild and a little moist Transparency Good There is enough generalized haze that η Cap and ε Cap are only seen because you know to look for them. Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

1653 EST

Sunset
Civil Twilight begins

1721 EST

Civil Twilight ends
Nautical Twilight begins

Target Resurs 1-4 Flare Constellation Per Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091101.1735 EST Comments Not Seen I was still trying to get up to TotL when this flare occurred.   CalSky Time 1735 EST Alt. 20.2° Az. 48.6° NE Mag. -0.2 Surface

Target Iridium Flare Constellation Cep Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091101.1746 EST Comments   Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1746 EST Alt. ° 58.7° Az. ° 24.2° NNE Mag. -1.3 Surface   MMA2 Iridium 74 showed up very early dropping on a slight westerly angle. I had given up on a flare when it started to brighten and got very bright right west of α Cam. Then faded quickly. This flare was not listed on Heavens Above.

1753 EST

Nautical Twilight ends
Astronomical Twilight begins

Target SkyMed 2 Flare Constellation Vul Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091101.1826 EST Comments   CalSky Time 1826 EST Alt. 74.4° Az. 185.4° S Mag. -1.5 Surface SAR Panel I picked up the satellite ~ 1825 EST near zenith and watched it fall between Peg and Cyg. It was already very bright and got even brighter as it fell past Del. Then it began to fade quickly but was visible until it went behind a cloud bank at ~25° altitude. I think my watch is off by several minutes. I already know tat it got messed up royally when I reset it to EST in the middle of the night last night. [On the way home I went through Rockefeller Center and while passing the Good Morning America studio I noticed that they have big digital cameras on the back of their cameras so I reset my watch to them and found that it was only fast by about 2 seconds.]

1835 EST

Astronomical Twilight ends