I had planned to get up at 0430 this morning to go out and try to observe a double flare from SkyMed1 and a half dozen other satellites before the start of Civil Twilight. When I got home last night I adjusted the alarm for the appropriate time, but I guess I was so tired I forgot to turn it on and woke up late this morning.
Tonight I will have a better shot at the crescent Moon, this time 2.4 days and 5.2% illuminated. But there is a storm headed this way. I think the storm is coming from the south so maybe I will luck out and it will be clear to the west.
| Observing Location | Central Park
- Wollman Memorial Skating Rink
Lat.: 40.788431
Long.: -73.973585
- Bethesda Fountain
Lat.: 40.773847
Long.: -73.971009
- Sheep Meadow
Lat.: 40.772782
Long.: -73.973740
- SW Corner
Lat.: 40.768845
Long.: -73.980134
|
|---|
| Observational Period | 1645-1730 EST |
|---|
| Atmospheric Conditions |
| Cloud Cover | OvercastThe Central Park automated weather station is reporting that it is clear but here is the picture from their own satellite that puts the lie to that report. Intellicast graphic |
|---|
| Temperature | 29 |
|---|
| Wind | Calm |
|---|
| Humidity | Moderate |
|---|
| Barometric Pressure | 30.15" Hg
Steady |
|---|
| Feels Like | Cool |
|---|
|
|---|
| Instruments | Naked-eye - Charlie |
|---|
| Observing Party | Charlie Ridgway
|
|---|
| Target | Day 2 Crescent Moon |
|---|
| Constellation | |
|---|
| Category | Lunar |
|---|
Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 2009 EST |
|---|
| Comments |
| Lunation | 1076 |
|---|
| Phase | Waxing Crescent |
|---|
| Age | 2.34 |
|---|
Distance
Light Time
(from earth) | 402,280 km
s |
|---|
| Elongation | ° |
|---|
| % Illuminated | 5.0% |
|---|
| Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) | 294.7° |
|---|
| Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) | 114.7° |
|---|
| Libration in Latitude | 0° 34' |
|---|
| Libration in Longitude | 0° 49' |
|---|
| Magnitude | -7.19 |
|---|
| Angular Size | 29.70'" |
|---|
| Altitude | 23° 45' |
|---|
 Virtual Moon Atlas graphic |
I got a notice that the library had a couple of holds ready for me so went over there and along the way realized that it was already time to go to Central Park for another attempt at the crescent Moon and I didn’t have any ephemeris information with me again. It looked like it might be cloudy but it was already dark enough that it was hard to be certain (that doesn’t absolve the National Weather Service of their persistent bade reports for central park – if they are going to make a report they should have figured out how to get it right). I went up to the park after claiming my holds and printing out the satellite passes for the next week.
My first stop was on top of Cat Rock, a large outcrop above Wollman Rink at 1645. I couldn’t see anything and thought that it must be cloudy. The sky was a smoky gray in color. I couldn’t even find Jupiter. I thought that it was possible that the Moon was low enough that the buildings around the park were blocking it so decided to press on toward TotL.
I have found that it is a little leveler walking north through the Mall than along the road and tonight was going to try going down to Bethesda Fountain and out by the Boathouse to see if that leveled my route out some more. When I got to the overlook above the fountain I looked back to the south and saw a very subdued Jupiter shining through obvious clouds. I gave up on the Moon and headed toward the Sheep Meadow to get to the west side park drive.
While walking across the top of the Sheep Meadow something caught my eye and when I looked there was a crescent Moon shining dimly through the clouds over the CNN billboard. That was at 1712 EST. I had forgotten that Mercury was east of the sun so didn’t think to look for him but with the clouds it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. It wasn’t worth looking for anything else so I continued on my route home
 Stellarium graphic
 Stellarium graphic
I don't think this is anywhere near a record young crescent for me but it is probably the earliest crescent I have found naked-eye without someone else telling me exactly where to look for it.
I got to the SW corner of the park at about 1720 and decided that since it was that late I might as well invest another nine minutes and take a shot at an Iridium flare.
|
|---|
|
| Target | Iridium 91 Flare |
|---|
| Constellation | |
|---|
| Category | Satellite |
|---|
Time
yyyymmdd.hhmm | 20091218.1729 EST |
|---|
| Comments |
| | Heavens
Above | CalSky |
|---|
| Iridium # | 90 | 91 |
|---|
| Time | 1729:27 EST1729: EST |
|---|
| Alt. | 60° | ° |
|---|
| Az. | 50°
NE | °
NE |
|---|
| Mag. | -1 | |
|---|
| Surface | | |
|---|
I compared my watch with the CNN billboard and the times were in good agreement so I decided to use the billboard to signal the one-minute warning. I practiced counting seconds and was nearly dead on so at 1728 EST I turned around to look where I thought the flare might occur and started counting off 89 seconds to the flare. At about 1729 I saw a bright satellite coming brom behind me which was headed north and faded as I looked. This appears to be another case where the predictions are in error. I just checked my watch with the NBST official US time web page, which says it currently has an accuracy of &plusmi;0.1 second, and my watch is about 2 seconds slow. There were also two other flares listed on CalSky a couple of days ago and there were no flares listed for tonight when I checked the site at the library.
|
|---|
|
NOAA has a winter storm warning up for NYC beginning tomorrow morning. They have increased their accumulated snowfall amount b the end of the storm on Sunday to 8 to 12 inches on the ground.
