31 January 2010

Sunspots Observed

There were some spots this month and I have optics that might permit me to see the larger ones but I never got out to see about it.

Observing Hours for the Year 2010

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	0.00	0	0.00	12.50	8	1.56	12.20	8	1.56
TOTAL	0.00	0	0.00	12.50	8	1.56	12.50	8	1.56

29 January 2010

Observing Location	Drip Rock
Observational Period	2000-2030 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Isolated Temperature 20° F Wind Gentle Breeze Wind Chill Effect 9° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.28" Hg Feels Like Brass monkey weather Transparency Excellent Seeing Excellent
Instruments	West Marine 7x50 Raiatea binocular - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I had three goals for tonight:

1. to see Mars and M44 and the Moon and M44;
2. to try to split some double stars; and
3. not to freeze my tukhus off.

Almost immediately the Palm reported a low battery although it had just come off the charger and was fully charged and the battery capacity meter is reading 95%. So I had nothing to take notes on since I didn’t bring a notepad with me tonight. I also didn’t have a reference for where my double stars were since the batteryies are also flat in my book light and there is no convenient street light here with which to read Karkoshca which is sitting in my binocular case.

Target M42 Orion Nebula, 1976, NGC & M43, NGC 1982 Constellation Ori Category DifNeb Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2006 EST Size 40/12 ly Distance 1400/1400 ly Age My Visibility 6 Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Karkoschka E4 Comments There was a ball of light nebulosity in the area of M42-M43 and also some nebulosity around 42 Ori and 45 Ori. Stellarium graphic

Target &sigma Ori, 48 Ori Constellation Ori Category Multiple Star System Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2010 EST Magnitude 3.8/6.6 3.8/6.6 Separation 41.5" 12.9" Color -0.2/-0.2 -0.2/-0.2 P.A. 10:00 9:00 Visibility 3/2 Distance 1090 ly Location Cartes du Ciel graphic References Comments I think there might be something at 2:00 but can’t hold the binoculat still enough to be sure. Karkoschka indicates the secondary is at 10:00.Even factoring in phase rotation that isn’t what I “saw”. If you rotated this image clockwise a bit (I am having trouble with Carted du Ciel not rotating the sky appropriately) it is more or less what I saw. Cartes du Ciel graphic This is what I should have seen. Stellarium graphic

Target Mintaka, δ Ori Constellation Ori Category Multiple Star System Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129. 2012EST Magnitude 2.2/6.8 Separation 52.4” Color -0.2/-0.2 P.A. 12:00 Visibility 2 Distance 1090 ly Location Cartes du Ciel graphic Stellarium graphic References Karkoshca: E5 Comments I don't remember what I saw here now but the separation is great enough that I should have split the double.

Target Moon Constellation Cnc Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2015 EST Comments Lunation 1077 Phase Age Distance Light Time (from earth) 353,462,000 km 1.18s Elongation 176.56° E % Illuminated 99.9% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 87.76° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 267.76° Libration in Latitude 2° 14' Libration in Longitude -0° 11' Magnitude -12.9 Angular Size 33' 53" Altitude 33° 50' Virtual Moon Atlas graphic The libration arrow is at the top of the image and so small that it is not well illustrated here. The Moon is painfully bright to look at in the binocular. When it is off to the side of the image I can see it reflecting off the side of the lenses. It is so bright that I can’t find any of M44. Carted du Ciel graphicAgain the phase rotation problem with Cartes du Ciel. Mars and the Moon should line up nearly horizontally left to right. Stellarium graphic It doesn’t look like the image is large enough to make out anything but the grossest of details on the lunar surface but that will be better assessed when there is a terminator to observe.

Target Mars Constellation Cnc Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2020 EST Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 175.46° E Distance Light Time (from Earth) 0.665 AU 5m 32s Distance (from Sun) 1.65 AU Angular Size 14.1" Magnitude -1.3 Central Meridian 53 ° Altitude 34.35° When I first saw Mars above Rockefeller Center from 6 Ave it looked white. Here in the park where there is less light pollution it looks a little orange. I can’t make out M44 in the binocular. When Mars is on the left edge of the FoV Mars is just outside of the right side of the FoV. They are 6.57° apart center to center so roughly 6.29° apart edge to edge and my binocular has a nominal 6.6° FoV. ? Since you are looking at two slightly different FoV with a binocular is the FoV the same dimension vertically as it is horizontally. It would seem that it should be slightly wider than it is tall.

Target Castor Constellation Gem Category Multiple Star System Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2023 EST Magnitude 1.9/2.9 Separation 4.7" Color 0.0/0.1 P.A. 10:00 Visibility 2 Distance 52 ly Location Cartes du Ciel graphic Stellarium graphic References Karkoshca: E7 Comments Not Seen much too close for my optics

Target Mekbuda, ζ Gem, 43 Gem Constellation Gem Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2025 EST Magnitude 4/7.6 Separation 101" Color 0.9/0.6 P.A. 1:00 Visibility 3 Distance 52 ly Location Cartes du Ciel graphic Stellarium graphic References Karkoshca: E7 Comments I don’t remember whether I saw the secondary or not but I don’t think I did.

Target ε Aur Constellation Aur Category Binary Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100129.2025 EST Magnitude 3.0 - 3.8 Distance 3000 ly Location Cartes du Ciel graphic Stellarium graphic References Comments The whole of the Kids fits comfortably into my FoV. I still think ε Aur is dimmer than η Aur which appears close in brightness to ζ Aur.

27 January 2010

NASA is holding the post Flight Readiness Review press briefing for STS-130 and announced that the launch is targeted for 0439 EST on 7Feb10. This means that we should, weather permitting, have a chance to see the shuttle fly by NYC. If they launch as planned they will rendezvous and dock with ISS on flight day 3, 8-0 February 2010, in the early morning hours. The ISS has recently received an altitude boost and it it does not receive another before STS-130 launch, which looks unlikely given the recent boots, it does not look like we will have any pre docking dual visible passes. There is talk of extending the mission by a day if everything is going well to do some additional work on the urine recycling system so it is too early to speculate on post separation dual passes.

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Observing Location	Bryant Park
Observational Period	2015-2100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 37° F Wind Calm Wind Chill Effect 31° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.14" Hg Rising slowly Feels Like Cold Transparency Excellent Seeing Excellent
Instruments	West Marine 7x50 Raiatea binocular and Galileoscope - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

First Light

I went out briefly tonight to test Marcos’ Galileoscope and my ne binocular. It was clear enough that I should have stayed out longer but wasn’t dressed for it and had no plan other than to see if the optics were in working order.

Hand-held the Galileoscope is nearly useless. That wasn’t a surprise to me. It is just too long and has too small of an exit pupil to be able to keep it pointed at anything, even something as large as the Moon. When you do get it reasonably stable then you have to let go with one hand and try to focus with the push-pull focuser. But I did hold it still enough to get the Moon in close enough focus to tell that it was splotchy. I used both the Plossl and the Galilean eyepieces but did not attempt the Barlow. I found that there was a bright ring centered on the Moon about 1/6 degree in diameter that should not have been there. I don't know if that is from not being in focus or if it is because the object was too bright for the plastic eyepieces. With a tripod I think you will get credible lunar views with this scope.

First Light

I also tried out my new binocular. When I looked at the Moon I immediately noticed two red stars off to the right and one brighter red star to the left. The floodlights from the MetLife building across the street were washing out the sky and my view was restricted by trees and buildings so I had no idea where I was looking but checking in Planetarium I saw that the Moon was in Gemini between Castors ankle (ε Gem) and foot (μ Gem and η Gem) which are indicated as red stars. The binocular specs indicate a 6.6° field of view and ε Gem and μ Gem appeared to be very near the edges of the FoV and are 5.46° apart. The image appeared to be clear. I had some trouble focusing the left eye to set the diopter but I think that was due to the fact that I was hand holding the binocular and looking very high up (65.06 degrees). I could easily see the rays from Tycho and Aristarchus was chalky white. It looked like Grimaldi was in the terminator although Virtual Moon Atlas indicated that it is still in shadow. I stole a look at Mars and it definitely looked planetary.

When I sent to West Marine tonight to get the picture of my binocular I saw that they have a similar binocular with nearly identical specifications on sale for $20 less than the one they had at the boat show. The only difference is that my model has BaK-4 glass in the prism while the other one uses BaK-7 glass. So I had to go and find out what the difference is between BaK-4 and BaK-7 glass.

The two glasses are made from different metals (barium and borosilicate respectively). It appears BaK-7 glass transmits a little more light than BaK-4 glass but BaK-4 glass has less light falloff at the edges of the field and because the prism is more circular there is less distortion. So it looks like I got the better glass purely by accident.

26 January 2010

Marcos got his Galileoscope and has assembled it but can’t see anything with it so left it with me this morning to make sure he had it put together correctly. While sitting in his car I looked at a Times Square sign and got a nice sharp view so suspect that is problem was either that he didn’t have his eye centered over the small exit pupil of the Galilean eyepiece which he had installed, or that he was looking at a patch of sky where there were no stars in the <h;1.5° FoV. I have the scope to examine and make sure that they lenses have been installed pointing in the correct direction and will take it out to look at the Moon if it is clear tonight. The specifications are:

Objective		50 mm 2”
Focal Length		500 mm F/10
Eyepieces		Plossl	Barlow	Galilean
	Folcal Length	20mm		29.4mm
	Magnification	25x	2x	17x
	Field of View	1.25°	0.75°	°
	Eye Relief	16 mm	22 mm	mm
	Barrel Diameter	1.25” 31.75 mm	1.25” 31.75 mm	1.25” 31.75 mm

24 January 2010

I picked up a 7x50 binocular at the boat show today. I don’t expect it to be a great binocular for astronomy but it the price I couldn’t pass it up. I am told that they are made somewhere in Asia but I suspect not Japan since they don’t have any country of origin marked on either them or the box, for West Marine. The specifications are:

Moded	Society Island Series: Raiatea (2677680)
Objective	50 mm
Magnification	7x
Eye Relief	27.4 mm
Field of View	6.6° 380’ @ 1000 yd
Coatings	fully multi-layer coated
Focus	center focus with diopter adjustment
Body	polycarbonate, nitrogen filled, 36 oz.
Tripod Mountable	yes

21 January 2010

Observing Location	Jacob K Javits Convention Center
Observational Period	1715-1745 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 38° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.16" Hg Steady Feels Like Mild Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100121.1736 EST Comments     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time EST EST EST Alt. ° ° ° Az. Mag C a l S k y Time 1736:23 EST 1741:07 EST 1743:44 EST Alt. horizon 31.2° 10.0° Az. 311.6° NW 28.6° NNE 94.6° E Mag 0.3 -3.6 -2.2 I saw it appear from behind Silver Towers right about the time of predicted culmination. It passed over 11 Ave and down 42 St before disappearing behind another tall, new apartment building on 10 Ave and 38 St. After 30-60 seconds it came from behind that building and began to diminish in brightness a little before setting into other buildings farther south.

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Observing Location	Jacob K Javits Convention Center
Observational Period	1815-11830 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 38° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.16" Hg Steady Feels Like Mild Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Iridium 10 Flare Constellation Cam Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20101021.1829 EST Comments 33.9° NE   Heavens Above CalSky Time   1829:19 EST Alt.   50.4° Az.   Mag.   -7.1 Surface   MMA2 I may or may not have seen this one. I did see a bright flare from a satellite falling along Manhattan north bit it appeared both too early and too high (although I always estimate altitudes incorrectly) While waiting for this flare I also saw a very faint satellite flying horizontally to the south beneath Gemini..

20 January 2010

Observing Location	Jacob K Javits Convention Center, 11 Ave @ 36 St, New York, NY Lat.: 40.756729° Long.: -74.001545°
Observational Period	2100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 36° F Wind Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect ° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.04" Hg Rising Feels Like Cool and Raw Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I had a bunch of satellite alarms set for tonight which blew off because I had checked the sky looking through the tinted walls of the Crystal Palace and thought it was overcast. When I got outside at 2100 EST it was crisp and crystal clear. This is the first and last time for trusting those windows.

Mars was bright and red a ways beneath Castor and Pollux. Orion was faint but all of the main elements were visible. Sirius was very bright below and to the left of Orion.

19 January 2010

In The Observing Sky Atlas E. Karkoschka has a table on sky brightness that is supposed to help you figure out which faint fuzzies you can see on a given night. The table equates the brightness of a NYC sky to that of a mountaintop under a Full Moon. I wondered what it would be like in NYC under a full moon so extended the chart to include projections for large cities under other than New Moon conditions.

Illumination Mountains or New Moon Field or Crescent (25%) Moon Suburb or First/Last Quarter (50%) Moon Small City or Gibbous (75%) Moon Large City or Full Moon Large City and New Moon Large City and Crescent (25%) Moon Large City and First/Last Quarter (50%) Moon Large City and Gibbous (75%) Moon Large City and Full Moon	Sky Brightness 14/square’ 13 12 11 (10) (10) (9) (8) (7) (6)
after E. Karkoschka numbers in ( ) are extrapolations

18 January 2010

The blog recently passed 30,000 page views. Mostly that is me checking the formatting of my posts then me checking what I have listed for future targets or watching the videos at the bottom of the page and then it is probably Peter seeing what I wrote about our joint observing sessions and what I have been doing between them.

17 January 2010

Resolution

The resolution of the naked eye is 5 arcminutes or 300 arcseconds.

The resolution of optics is 300/power of the optic.

Assumedly if you eyesight is not great, like mine, you need to substitute your personal resolution in arcseconds for the 300 in the above formula.

Resolving Power and Resolution of Optical Systems

Optics	power	Aperture	Limiting mag.	FoV	Lunar Size	Resol- ution	Visibi- lity
naked-eye	1x	6 mm	6	120°	30’	300”	6
opera glasses	3x	20mm	8	at°	10’	100”	5
finder scope	6x	30,,	9	7°	5’	50”	4
binocular	12x	50mm	10	4°	2.5’	25”	3
guide scope	60x	75mm	11	50’	30”	5”	2
telescope	35x 350x	150mm	13	80’ 8’	50” 5”	8” 0.8”	1
Takahashi 102	31.8x 97.7x 118.4x	102mm		:° 82° 82°		9.4” 3” 2.5”
TelePort 10	31.8x 74.7x 181.4x	254mm		70° 82° 82°		9.4” 3.0” 1.7”
Galileoscope	17x 25x 50x	50mm		1.5° 0.75°		17.6” 12” 6”

16 January 2010

Observing Location	Hudson River Park @ Battery Park Ciity, New York, NY Lat.:40.718647° Long.: -74.016679
Observational Period	1600-1900 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 49° F Wind Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect 46° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.12" Hg Rising Feels Like Chilly None Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Moon Constellation Cap Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100116.1613 EST Comments Lunation 1078 Phase Waxing Crescent Age 1d 14h 40m Distance Light Time (from earth) 405,203 km 1.35s Elongation 17.48° E % Illuminated 2.3% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 288.14° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 108.14° Libration in Latitude -2° 11' Libration in Longitude -1° 29' Magnitude -5.6 Angular Size 29' 34" Altitude 14° 6' Virtual Moon Atlas graphic I saw the Moon at 1713 EST. It looked like a lopsided smile seen dimly through cirrus clouds extending up from the horizon. I had to locate it by finding Jupiter and working down the assumed ecliptic from there. By 1749 EST it was too deep into the clouds for me to find it again.

1653 EST

Sunset
Civil Twilight begins

1723 EST

Civil Twilight ends
Nautical Twilight begins

1757 EST

Nautical Twilight ends
Astronomical Twilight begins

Target Resurs 1-4 Flare Constellation Aur Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100116.1757 EST     Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1757:07 EST Alt. ° 41.5° Az. ° 70.1° ENE Mag. -0.5 Surface   unknown surface Comments Not Seen

1829 EST

Astronomical Twilight ends

Target COSMO-SkyMed 3 Flare Constellation Psc Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100116.1831 EST     Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1831:46 EST Alt. ° 61.7° Az. ° 213.6° SSW Mag. -0.7 Surface   SAR panel Comments Not Seen

Target Iridium 56 Flare Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100116.1859 EST     Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1859: 08EST Alt. ° 60.6° Az. ° 47.2° NE Mag. -4.0 Surface   solar panel Comments Not Seen

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100116.1900 EST Comments     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time EST EST EST Alt. ° ° ° Az. Mag C a l S k y Time 1900:27 EST EST 1902:21 EST Alt. horizon ° 7.7° Az. 313.7° NNW ° 328.0° NW Mag 0.5 -0.8 Given my experience with the previous three satellites I didn't even attempt this pass. It was going to rise from the horizon and only reach 8° altitude before entering Earth's shadow at mag. -0.8. I sent to get some dinner before going to the sea chanty sing.

15 January 2010

14 January 2010

The BBC is carrying a story today about ESA calling for continued funding to maintain the ISS through 2020. Currently it is only supposed to be in operation until 2015. It seems kind of foolish to me to be spending all this money launching huge pieces of equipment only to throw them into the ocean in five years. I wonder how much money would be saved if all future Shuttle launches were to be canceled and the hardware still on the ground were sold as scrap. Anyway ESA says that it is hard to recruit scientific experiments when ISS is at end-of-life.

At the bottom of the articles are some anticipated highlights of the coming year. One of them is a new Russian launch facility in Guiana. It says that just by moving a launch to the equator the Russians will improve the efficiency of the Sooyuz rocket by 50%.
,p>

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I was looking at something on the Web and there was a like to a definition of Universal Time. I followed the cascade of links and ended up at the U.S. Naval Observatory where I learned the difference between UTC and plain old UT. These are slightly different flavors of the same thing.

Universal Time (UT), commonly referred to as Greenwich Mean Time and abbreviated as either UT, UT1, or Z (zulu time), is determined by observing how long it takes a star to reach the same place in the sky on successive nights. This time may vary slightly from the time kept by your watch but is good enough for government work or when your accuracy doesn't need to be good to the second. So that is good for things like the time of the Full Moon or the meridional passage of the GRS. This is the time listed in almanacs.

If you need accuracy of a second or better, say for timing a occultation or launching a satellite you want to loose on the back side of Mars, then you need to use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC is a civil time that is based on averaging the results of a network of worldwide atomic clocks. This is the time broadcast by WWV and supplied to the internet.

I know there is more information on this topei in the Observer's Handbook but the information there is so dense that I have never made it through that article.

13 January 2009

Observing Location	Bryant Park
Observational Period	1645-1715 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Broken Central Park was reporting clear Temperature 35° F Wind Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect 30° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.13" Hg Steady Feels Like Raw Transparency None Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Iridium 19 Flare Constellation And Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100113.1713 EST   Heavens Above CalSky Time 1713:22 EST 1713:23 EST Alt. 71° 70.9° Az. 56° NE 55.4° NE Mag. -8 -7.4 Surface   MMA2 Comments Not Seen I was working at the library when a calendar alarm went off warning of a Mag. -8 flare and I immediately packed up to get up to Bryant Park to observe it not thinking that I had recently checked the satellite image and knew it was very cloudy. As long as I was all shut down and checked for stolen library materials I continued up to the park to see if a Mag. -8 would show through heavy overcast. It didn’t, at least not where I was looking. But then I am often not looking where I need to be when I can’t see the background stars.

11 January 2009

Marcos has expressed an interest in astronomy and was looking at telescopes. I tried to steer him to a good binocular for his first optics and suggested that he at least wait on a telescope until he has been to a star party and had a chance to look at and through various scopes and seen how difficult it can be to point it at something until you know the sky and have developed the requisite skill. As something of interest to contrast with the expensive scopes on the market I pointed out the Galileoscope. He decided that that would be his first scope. Galileoscope.org graphic

I like the idea of the Galileoscope because it is so basic and inexpensive. And it is a higher quality instrument than the one Galileo used to discover the moons of Jupiter and craters on the Moon. It may not perform as well as Peter’s 6” Tac but I like the idea of a minimal piece of equipment being able to show the night sky to advantage.

Marcos sent me a link to Celestial Journeys which includes some exploration another astronomer is making with the scope. Reading this is getting me cranked about the Galileoscope again. Marcos has offered to let me borrow his and I might take him up on that some time, or get him to bring it to Central Park to observe with Peter and me, before I spring for one.

10 January 2001

Observing Location	Park Ave @ 34 St, New York, NY
Observational Period	0645-0730 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 14 Wind Calm Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect 4° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.27" Hg Rising Feels Like Frigid Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Manhattan Henge Constellation Cap Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100110 EST Comments I started out at 6 Ave and 42 St but there is a slight incline in 42 St to the east so I moved over to 5 Ave where 42 St starts to run downhill to the east but from there the Park Ave bridge was obstructing the horizon. I decided to walk south on 5 Ave knowing that I would be able to observe from 34 St if I didn’t find an acceptable location along the way. And I didn’t so I ended up at Park Ave and 34 St again. The sun was a little late due to the elevation of the land over in Greenpoint. At 0719 EST there was no sun but the horizon was very bright. By 0721 the sun was partially up. At 0723 it was all the way up and slightly south of the midline of 34 St. By 0725 it was uncomfortably bright to look at without appropriate filtration. And by 0729 from the centerline of 34 St it had already disappeared behind the buildings on the S side of 34 St.

9 January 2010

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1730-2200 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 27° F falling to 20° F Wind Moderate Breeze Wind Chill Effect 17° G falling to 11° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.15" Hg Rising Feels Like Frigid Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie Teleport 10" Donsonisn reflector – Peter 2" Pentax 40mm, 70° FoV, 31.8x 2" TeleVue Nagler 17mm, 82° FoV, 74.7x 1.25" TeleVue Nagler 13mm, 82° FoV, 97.7x 1.25" TeleVue Plossl 7mm, 82° FoV, 181.4x
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

On the way up to TotL I stopped at Bethesda Fountain to see if there was anything visible in early twilight. I saw Jupiter (but assumed Jupiter had already set so figured it must be Mars), and α and Β Aur.

On arriving at TotL I could see Antares and six of the Pleiades.

Target ε Aur Constellation Aur Category Eclipsing Binary Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1730 EST References The Observer's Sky Atlas: N6 Comments Stellarium graphic Tonight I judged ε Aur to be close in brightness but slightly dimmer than ζ Aur (Mag. ). Later when Peter arrived I repeated the assessment with him and I still felt ε was the dimmest of the kids while Peter felt that it was slightly brighter than ζ but dimmer than η Aur (Mag. ). [Karkoschka lists ζ Aut as a variable irself with a range of Mag. 3.7 to Mag. 4.0. If that is the case we are comparing the grightness of one variable star to that of another and it would be impossible to get a valid brightness estimate by comparing ε to ζ. 13Jan10]

Target Satellite Constellation Aur, Tau Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1746 EST Comments While observing ε Aur an unknown, faint satellite passed through the center of Auriga and on below Antares. It looks like it was the Cosmos 1025 Rocket which passed from N through E and faded in the SE about that time. At maximum altitude it was Mag. 4.9.

Target Jupiter Constellation Aqr Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1830 EST Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 38.38° E Distance Light Time (from Earth) 5.73 AU 17m 40s Distance (from Sun) 5.00 AU Angular Size 34.3" x 32.1" Magnitude -1.6 Central Meridian I/II/III 39.8 °/160.7°/296.3° Altitude 15° 6' Stellarium graphic Planetary and Lunar Visiblility graphic Jupiter was very low and as a consequence of Earth’s atmosphere it appeared a uniform salmon color with no evidence of banding or polar hoods. Two moons were observed in Peter’s hand held 10x binocular and all of the moons were visible in the telescope at low power.

We discussed what the bright evening star we were seeing in the SW might be. I thought Jupiter would have already set remembering how high it was the last time I had seen it and adding in the passage of time since I had made that last observation. What I did not factor into that calculation was that we were out much earlier than usual. Peter didn’t think it was Mars as he felt that would rise much later. Mercury and Venus are setting before the Sun so there wasn’t much left and no matter where Saturn was that looked too bright to me to have been Saturn. Eventually we got out Peter’s Palm and I checked in Planetarium to see what was bright in the SW. Sure enough it was Jupiter. The information page said Jupiter was at a little better than 21° altitude. But both Peter and I estimated Jupiter’s actual altitude to be higher than that. I estimated a bit more than 23° and I always seem to estimate low. So that begs the question:

?

How does the height of the observer affect the altitude at which an object is perceived? It seems to me that there should be an effect there. If two people, one 4’ and the other 5’ tall both look at the horizon the shorter person will perceive the horizon to be nearer than the taller person. Height of Eye Distance to Horizon 4 feet 2.228 nautical miles 4.330 kilometers 6 feet 2.863 nautical miles 5.302 kilometers horizon distance (nautical miles)=1.17 x sqrt(eye height) (feet) Each person would be looking down to see his horizon, the taller person looking down farther. If they each measure up 20° from their horizon it seems that the point in the sky that the shorter person is looking at would be higher in the sky than the point the taller person is looking at. Now we are in an area of mathematics that is beyond my ability to remember what happened all those eons ago when I straggled through Mr Rifkin’s geometry lessons, or was he trig. Looking in Wikipedia for some help I find that there are three types of horizons true horizon; visible horizon; and astronomical horizon Wikipedia graphic I have always used the true horizon when making altitude estimations. This may be why I am always looking low for satellites. But even of two people of two different heights looked at the same angle above the astronomical horizon they should still be looking at different places in the sky since in the example above the astronomical horizon would be 2’ lower for the shorter person.

Target M38, NGC 1912, Cr 67 Constellation Aur Category OCL Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1850 EST Size 25 x 25 ly Distance 5,700 ly Age 278.6 My Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observers Guide: 120-122 The Observer's Sky Atlas: N6 Comments Faint; “A” shaped 3 levels of brightness 19 stars easily counted

Target M36, NGC 1960, Cr 71 Constellation Aur Category OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1900 EST Size 12 x 12 ly Distance 4,100 ly Location Where is M13 graphics References Deep Sky Observers Guide: 120-122 The Observer's Sky Atlas: N6 Comments delta-shape several levels of brightness 12 stars counted in brightest levels

Target M31, Andromeda Galazy, NGS224 & M32, NGC 221 Constellation And Category Gal Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1905 EST Size 5,585 x 4,189 ly Distance 2,400,000 ly/2,400,000 Location Where is M13 graphics M31 & M32 appear in the same location Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 11, 16, 18, 42, 47, 49, 50, 53-55, 74, 75, 77, 146 The Observer's Sky Atlas: N0 Comments I actually saw M32, the companion galaxy, before the Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy had an obvious brightening at the center.

Target M37, NGC 2099, Cr 75 Constellation Aur Category OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1913 EST Size 18 x 18 ly Distance 4,100 ly Age 346.7 My Location Where is M13 graphics References Deep Sky Observers Guide: 120-122 The Observer's Sky Atlas: N6 Comments 3 levels of brightness 13 stars counted

Target M45, the Pleiades, CR 42 Constellation Tau Category OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.1915 EST Size 13 x 13 ly Disance 410 ly Age 135.2 My Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 10, 16, 17, 95, 98, 107, 112, 113, 114-115, 116, 119, 132, 175 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E3 Comments We counted the stars naked-eye and this time I came up with eight.

Target M1, Crab Nebula, NGC 1952 Constellation Tau Category DifNeb, SNR Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109 EST Size 11 x 7 ly Distance 6,300 My Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 8, 20, 26, 162, 163-164, 177, 181 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E3 Comments Not Seen This was Peter’s main quarry for the night and although considerable time was spent looking for it he could not find it. He thinks we have seen it from TotL before but, like most other objects, I have no memory of it.

Target M42, Orion Nebula, NGC 1976,/M43, NGC 1982 Constellation Ori Category DifNeb Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.2015 EST Size 40 x 28 ly/9 x 7 ly Distance 1,600 ly/1,600 ly Location Where is M13 graphics M42 & M43 appear in the same location Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 8, 10, 13, 27, 50, 93, 96, 97, 99-100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 111, 141, 142, 175, 176 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E4 Comments Stellarium graphic We observed the Orion Nebula first with a nebula filter and it was very impressive. There was a stripe of nebulosity that was just above three bright stars below the trapezium. As the stripe passed the last of the three stars it made a right turn and continued down at least as far as it had gone horizontally. Messier's drawing of M42 shows this well. Wikipedia graphic Above the trapezium there was another horizontal band of nebulosity also going out to the west. There was nondescript nebulosity at M43. The faintest of the trapezium stars was difficult to see. Without the nebula filter there was still a lot of nebulosity in M42 but the extensions to the west and south were gone. M43 was detectable but that is about all. Down at Iota there appeared to be some nebulosity but we felt that it might also have just been that we were looking at a bright star.

Target M79, NGC 1904 Constellation Lep Category GCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.2100 EST Size 118 x 118 ly Distance 42,100 ly Location Where is M13 graphic Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 75, 87-88 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E4 Comments Therre was a brightnening at the center of the cluster. The gradient in brightness from the edge to the center was very smooth.

Target M41, NGC 2287, Cr 118 Constellation CMa Category OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.2120 EST Size 26 x 26 ly Distance 2,300 ly Age 242.7 My Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 112, 123-124 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E6 Comments little b____ lots of stars, three levels of brightness stars were primarily red and blue

Target M35, NGC 2168, Cr 82 Constellation Gem Category OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.2130 EST Size 16 x 16 ly Distance 2,200 ly Age 96.3 My Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 122, 177 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E7 Comments Some color (red and light blue) is showing but not as pronounced as that in M41.

Target M50, NGC 2323, Cr 124 Constellation Mon Category OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109.2150 EST Size 13 x 13 Distance 2,900 ly Age 124.7 My Location Where is M13 graphics Cartes du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer's Guide: 122-123 The Observer's Sky Atlas: E8 Comments three levels of brightness bright stars are mainly red

Target Mars Constellation Leo Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100109 EST Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 152° 42' W Distance Light Time (from Earth) 0.698 AU 5m 48s Distance (from Sun) 1.64 AU Angular Size 13.4" Magnitude -1.0 Central Meridian 243° Altitude 23° 49' Planetary and Lunar Visibility Meridian graphic graphic We noted Mars rising above the trees but didn’t point the scope at it.