31 July 2009

Sunspots Observed

I was not able to do any solar observing this month. There have been a few days with sunspots but mostly small and short lived. At least one of the spots was a Cycle 24 spot.

Observing Hours for the Year 2009

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	0.50	2	0.25	0.25	1	0.25	0.75	2	0.38
Feb	2.75	11	0.25	2.50	9	0.28	2.25	14	0.38
Mar	0.00	0	0.0	4.00	7	0.57	4.00	7	0.57
Apr	0.25	1	0.25	0.75	2	0.38	1.00	2	0.50
May	1.25	2	0.63	0.25	1	0.25	1.50	3	0.50
Jun	0.00	0	0.00	0.50	1	0.50	0.50	1	0.50
Jul	0.50	1	0.50	0.50	1	0.50	1.00	2	0.50
TOTAL	5.25	17	0.31	8.75	22	0.40	14.00	31	0.45

4 July 2009

Observing Location	Bowery @ E 3 St., New York, NY
Observational Period	2100-2130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 74° F Wind Calm gusting to Moderate Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.83" Hg Feels Like Warm Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

It was early twilight when I saw a star up near zenith to the south that I assumed must be Vega, being the first star visible, but my memory tells me that Vega should be farther north at this time of year. I got out the Japanese astronomy diary Peter gave me which has a mini planisphere in it and it looked like it might have been Arcturus, but not reading Japanese or having used a planisphere in a while and not having sufficient light to read the few English characters on the small dial I couldn’t be sure. After a while the bright star on the left side of the diamond (ε Boo) appeared then finally the kite’s tail star (η Boo) which confirmed the ID for me. I arced back and found the handle stars of the Big Dipper and the pointers then Polaris and the guardian stars of UMi. Dropping down from Arcturus I found Spica. Then I saw something bright up north with 2 dim stars (β Lyr and γ Lyr) a way off that which I IDed as Lyra but it wasn’t as high in the sky as I remember it. Even lower was Deneb, the center of the Northern Cross (γ Cyg) and the brightest stars of the breaks of the wings (ε Cyg and δ Cyg) of Cygnus. Way out and very faint was Altair.