27 March 2010

Observing Location	DR
Observational Period	1200-1330 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered light cirrostratus Temperature 37° F Wind Gentle Breeze Wind Chill Effect Heat Index ° F Humidity Low Barometric Pressure 30.43" Hg Steady KNYC METAR 271551Z AUTO 10007KT 050V210 10SM CLR 03/M14 A3045 RMK AO2 SLP304 T00281139 Feels Like Crisp Transparency Good Seeing I-II
Instruments	West Marine 7x50 Raiatea binocular w/AstroSolar filter film– Charlie Takahashi 22x60 binocular w/orange solar filter- Peter Nikon 10x50 binocular - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target Sunspots Constellation Psc Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100327.1200 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.00 AU 8m s Angular Size 32' 6.5" Altitude 49.3° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -6.77° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 344.46° Parallactic Angle (P) -25.89 ° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2095 In my binocular I saw group 1057 easily. After Peter told me where to look I saw group 1059 in his tripod mounted 22x binocular but could not find it in my binocular. I did not see anything naked eye but Peter reported seeing 1057 after he knew where to look for it.   Groups Spots R North 1 5 15 South 1 1 11 Total 2 6 26 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) The sunspot number for yesterday being reported by Space Weather is 27. Group 1057 Heliographic Latitude ° Heliographic Longitude ° Carrington rotation number (CR) Mcintosh System This is a complex group. The P spot is faint and appears to have a smaller spot trailing it. The T spot appears to me to be two large spots with a common penumbra stacked vertically. They are preceeded by two small spots leading to the trailing spot of the P spot, so there are three small spots between the P and T spots unequally spaced. Group 1059 Heliographic Latitude ° Heliographic Longitude ° Carrington rotation number (CR) Mcintosh System This group is right on the E limb a little lower than the center of the disc. At present it appears to be a single light gray spot.

Target Venus Constellation Psc Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100327.1230 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Phase Gibbous Elongation 18.11° E % Illuminated 95.2% Distance Light Time (from Earth) 1.6 AU 13m 19s Distance (from Sun) 0.723 AU Angular Size 10.5" Magnitude -3.9 Altitude 51.36° Meridian graphic Peter got Venus in his binocular and I could see it there and thought I could see an indication of phase on the E limb. He found it in his hand-held binocular but I was not able to do that with either his binocular or mine.

When looking close to the sun I get a lot of glare from the side of my binocular. The binocular needs internal baffeling as well as the edges of the lenses blackened. I also found that I could not focus on things close. At the closest focus rocks a long way off were in focus but a truck license plate a little closer was not. A robin nearby was very blurry. I don’t know what the minimum focus distance for this binocular is.

We saw three hawks spiraling up on the wind currents over Rumsey Fields area. It looked more like they were just enjoying the wind than that they were hunting. The markings looked very nice as the light passed through the wings when thy banked away from us and illuminated their backs as they banked back toward us.

On the way out of the park we stopped at two locations to search for garnets. There is a boulder N of Drip Rock that I think has a vein of garnet near its base and Peter has found them in a vein on Overlook Rock in the SE corner of the park.

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