30 April 2010

Observing Location	TotL Tonight the infield sprinklers came on and not the outfield sprinklers. They came on around 2330 EDT and were still on when we left the par at 0100 EDT. Why dies the dirt need more water than the grass? Do they want it to grow more since they don’t have to mow that part of the Lawn?
Observational Period	2045-0100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 65° F Wind Calm gusting to Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect Heat Index ° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.78" Hg Steady (3) KNYC METAR 010051Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 18/08 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP084 T01830078 Feels Like Cool Transparency Good I felt the sky looked murky and that I was not seeing as many stars in the binocular as I would on a clear night but there was no visible cloud. There was a lot of diffuse glow coming out of the south skyline. Seeing II-III
Instruments	West Marine Raiatea 7x50 binocular on Benro MP-98M8 Monopod - 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 Tol Clabough

Tonight was my first night observing with my Benro monopod. It takes the up and down shake out of the binocular but there is side to side sway and rotational movement. It helps and propping the leg against something solid will help even further. Even at the full 77” extension I can’t look high into the sky like I wanted and am going to have to put a single-axis head on it. I found that when I wanted to look up I got a steadier view than just hand-held binoculars if I collapsed the monopod and held the binocular in one hand and the monopod in the other down near the tip. We used it looking at the Moon at the end of the night and I was able to see more detail than I can see hand holding the binocular. Peter thought the Moon views were very good with his Nikon binocular on it.

I had thought about trying to get a simple wooden ball that I could mount on top of the monopod so it could be used as a cane when my knee is bothering me and tried using it in that manner on the way up to TotL but it isn’t going to work. I think there is too much swing weight and I am only able to get it out to match my footfall about every 2 ½ steps.

I have been to the eye doctor and tonight is also the first night with my new windshields. My prescription has gotten a little stronger and they found some astigmatism that hasn’t previously been noted or at least not mentioned to me or corrected for. I am seeing more clearly now but tonight was not a night to test them out against Peter. I was able to see Alcor but not Pherkad minot.

Target Venus Constellation Tau Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2050 EDT Object Class Classical Planet Phase Gibbous Elongation 26.55° E % Illuminated 89.0% Distance Light Time (from Earth) 1.46 AU 12m 09s Distance (from Sun) 0.719 AU Angular Size 11.5" Magnitude -3.9 Altitude 12.73° Stellarium graphic Comments When I arrived at The Great Lawn I could see something very bright near the apartment building along CPW that has the three towers where we watch for the crescent Moons and knew it must be Saturn. After dropping my gear off at TotL I moved over to the benches at the NE corner of the lawn to get a look at it before it set into the buildings. It was very bright and flared in the binocular. I could not detect any phase. There were some stars nearby to the left that turned out to be the Hyades but there weren’t enough of them visible for me to identify them in the binocular and if I saw Aldeberan I didn’t notice any color to it. M45 had already gone behind the buildings. Stellarium graphic

Target Saturn Constellation Vir Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2100 EDT Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 137.92° E Distance Light Time (from Earth) 8.74 AU 1h 13m Distance (from Sun) 9.51 AU Angular Size 18.9"x16.9" Ring Angular Size 42.9"x1.45" Ring Inclination -1.94 ° Magnitude 0.8 Altitude 48.12° Cartes du Ciel graphic Comments There are reports on the internet of a huge storm on Saturn that both professional and armature astronomers have been observing. I looked for it but didn’t see any planetary detail. I don’t know what its longitude is, how fast Saturn is rotating or what its central meridian was at the time when we were observing. But from the looks of the image below I think it will just be luck if I do eventually see it. NASA graphic I could see two moons on each side of the planet. A thin band of ring shadow was visible on the planet above (scope view) the tings. A woman stopped to look later in the night and kept referring to the rings as Saturns “orbit things.”

Target Mars Constellation Cnc Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2105 EDT Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 91.95° Distance Light Time (from Earth) 1.29 AU 10m 42s Distance (from Sun) 1.66 AU Angular Size 7.27" Magnitude 0.7 Central Meridian 302 ° Altitude 59.18° Meridian graphic Comments Mars has gotten a lot farther away from M44 than it was last Friday and now the two objects are on the field stops of my 6.5D°: FoV. Peter and I both saw a comma-shaped dark mark at the top of the planet’s disk that we thought was surface detail and matched what was showing in Mars Map on the Palm, but now that I see the same thing in the accompanying Meridian graphic, although rotated east more than what we observed, I realize that the telescope image was flipped both north-south and mirror-reversed east-west and what we were seeing was on the southern hemisphere so does not match up with the Meridian graphic. Peter mentioned suspecting a smudge on an eyepiece but said what he sees doesn’t move when they eyepiece is rotated so was wondering it it was something on the mirror. We looked down at the mirror which has a coating of dust and a few larger specks but nothing that should cause a stripe to appear in the eyepiece. In any case I am wondering if what we saw was this artifact.

Target Unknown Satellite Constellation UMa Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2115 EDT Comments At about 2115 EDT someone saw a satellite. I picked it up as it was crossing the bowl of the Big Dipper tracking S-N. It was almost as bright as the bowl stars. I checked in CalSky and can’t find a likely candidate for it. All of the satellites (spent rocket casings) around that time were on S-N trajectories.

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Cep ? Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2136 EDT     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time EDT EDT EDT Alt. ° ° ° Az. Mag C a l S k y Time 2136:35 EDT 2131:21 EDT 2141:54 EDT Alt. horizon 64.4° horizon Az. 260.4° W 325.5° NW 52.2° NE Mag 0.7 -3.7 -0.7 Comments Everyone was looking for this in the W. Tom asked if I saw it and as I turned back to where I was looking I saw it coming from behind the trees as it passed through N. After locating it I went back to my own observations. It was bright and low down to the trees above the chimney of the park maintenance building north of the North Fields.

Target NGC 2903 Constellation Leo Category DSO: SpGal Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2140 EDT Magnitude 9 Surface Brightness 13/sq' Size 10' Shape Elongated Difficulty (2) Distance 25 Mly Location Catres du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer’s Guide: 45, 60 Stars and Planets: 252 Binocular Highlights: 46 The Observer’s Sky Atlas: E11 Comments The comment in Planetarium is "conspicuous spiral" while Karkoshca says it needs at least a 75mm guide scope and is more difficult because of low surface brightness. Bone says One of Leo’s brighter galaxies, NGC 2903 is perhaps a surprising omission from Messier’s catalog, being prominent in small telescopes. NGC 2903 is easy to find, just west of the Sickle of Leo. The mag. +4.3 star γ Leo is the best guide: just south of γ are a couple of 7th-magnitude stars aligned roughly E–W, and NGC 2903 is 22’ south of the more easterly of the two. I find this galaxy prominent in my 80mm f/5 refractor at X40. The galaxy appears elongated NE-SW, with a slightly brighter nuclear region offset somewhat to the south. Visually, NGC 2903 has a long axis of about 8’. Larger telescopes show mottling: there are prominent H II regions. This Sh spiral galaxy is 25 million light years away and was discobered by William Herschel in 1784. My note is that I may have seen it or I may have seen a nearby star. I definitely saw something in the right place that I didn’t think resolved but Peter thought it was a star. There is a star where I was looking in Pleiad Atlas and the galaxy is shown off to the side of what I saw and very large. For all of its conspicuousness I am not sure that either Peter or I saw it. Interestingly I saw a line of faint stars marching off the the left that Peter didn’t find until he had been in the eyepiece for a while. And he almost always sees deeper than I do. I wasn’t using the new windshields so don’t know what to attribute this to.

Since we hadn’t found this easy galaxy peter decided that it was probably a better night to look at globular clusters.

Target M3, NGC 5272 Constellation B00 Category DSO: GCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2203 EDT Magnitude 6.5 Surface Brightness 11/sq' Size 10' Shape Circular Difficulty 5 Distance 35,000 ly Location Where is M13 graphic Catres du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer’s Guide: 81-82 Stars and Planets: 159, 162, 190, 192, 256 Binocular Highlights: The Observer’s Sky Atlas: E15 Comments Easy (in the telescope) Bright and extended. Brightness of core falls off to a thin mist quickly, It looked like a big, circular, fuzzy dust bunny. I tried finding it in my binocular without success.

I branched out on my own a bit with my binocular and Binocular Highlights. The monopod is no mach though for a tripod with a Bogen 410 head. It is nice being able to look away from the eyepieces to refer to star charts and go back to the eyepieces and the binoculars are still pointed where they were (allowing for earth rotation). I just can’t justify spending $100+ for a tripod and $200+ for the geared head to support a $50 binocular.

Target ρ Cnc Constellation Cnc Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2230 EDT Magnitude 6.0/6.3 Color 0.9/1.5 Separation 273" P.A. 5:00 Difficulty 5 Location Catres du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer’s Guide: 44 Stars and Planets: 53 Observer’s Handbook 2010: Binocular Highlights: 44 The Observer’s Sky Atlas: Comments Easy, a wide double, fairly equal There is a ρ1 Cnc and a ρ2 Cnc which are 47’ apart and sounds like a double but the actual ρ Cnc double is ρ1 Cnc.

Target ι Cnc, 48 Cnc Constellation Category Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 2010 EDT Magnitude 4.0/6/5 Color orange/green, 1.0/0.1 Separation 30.5" P.A. 2:00 Difficulty 2 Location see &rho Cnc chart above References Deep Sky Observer’s Guide: Stars and Planets: 252, 253 Observer’s Handbook 2010: Binocular Highlights: 44 The Observer’s Sky Atlas: E9 Comments I didn make a note of it and don’t have a recollection of it so don’t think I saw this as a double star.

Target δ Boo Constellation Boo Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430. EDT Magnitude 3.5/7.8 Color 1.0/0.6 Separation 104.9" P.A. 10:00 Difficulty 3 Location Catres du Ciel graphic References Binocular Highlights: 42 Stars and Planets Chart 16 The Observer’s Sky Atlas: N14 Comments The left corner of the Kite. I think I saw this as a double but I wasn’t making notes so can’t be suer.

Target μ Boo Constellation Category Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 2010 EDT Magnitude 4.3/6.5(7.0/7.6) Color 0.3/0.6(0.6/0.6) Separation 108.8" (2.1”) P.A. 6:30 (12:00) Difficulty 4 (1) Location see &delta Boo entry References Stars and Planets: Chart 16 Binocular Highlights: 42 The Observer’s Sky Atlas: N14 Comments Above the line between the left corner and the top of the Kite. About half way between δ Boo and the ν Boo double. I think I detected it as a double but did not split it. The secondary star is itself a binary star system

Target &nu Boo Constellation Boo Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430. EDT Magnitude Color Separation " P.A.   Difficulty   Location see δ Boo entry References Stars and Planets: Chart 16 Binocular Highlights: 42 Comments A very wide double. Not listed by Karkoschka. I get the feeling he doesn’t think these very wide doubles are worth looking at.

Target Iridium 42 Flare Constellation Cyg Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.2243 EDT   Heavens Above CalSky Time EDT 2243:49 EDT Alt. ° 11.3° NE Az. ° 41.5° Mag. -3.9 Surface   MMA1 Comments This flare was bright and in the center of it there was an instant when the brightness increased and dropped again to the former brightness before it faded entirely.

Target Engagement Ring Constellation UMi Category Asterism Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430 EDT Comments A saw a few more stars up there tonight than I had seen last week when I tried to observe this asterism from Columbia Univerisity, but still not enough to say I saw the ring.

Target R CrB Constellation CrB Category Variable Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430 EDT Location Cartes du Ciel graphic Comments I looked but wasn’t able to find the star. I attribute this more to poor transparency than to the possibility that the star has suddenly dimmed below the light grasp of by binodular.

Target Melotte 111, Coma Cluster Constellation Com Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430 EDT Magnitude 2.5 Surface Brightness 13/sq' Size 300' Shape circular Difficulty (6) Distance 290 ly Location Catres du Ciel graphic References Deep Sky Observer’s Guide: 256 Stars and Planets: Binocular Highlights: 41 The Observer’s Sky Atlas: E13 Comments Peter thought I should be able to see Mel 111 and it was in Binocular Highlights so I gave it a try. I couldn’t even be sure where Com was. I didn’t feel too bad about it because later when Peter tried for the cluster in the scope he couldn’t find it either.

Target Regulus Constellation Leo Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430 EDT The Observer’s Sky Atlas: E11 Magnitude Color Separation " References Stars and Planets: 286 Binocular Highlights: 47 Location Catres du Ciel graphic Comments I was on what I thought was Regulus but was looking out over the glare from Times Square and things were washed out. I didn’t see a double but with the secondary being faint and Regulus being of the 1st magnitude It would be difficult to spot anyway.

Target τ Leo 84 Leo Constellation Leo Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430 EDT Magnitude 5.0/7.5 Color Separation 89" P.A.   Difficulty   Location Catres du Ciel graphic References Stars and Planets: Chart 27 Binocular Highlights: 47 Comments The sky was muddy enough I wasn’t sure where I was going so never found the star.

Target Moon Constellation Sco Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100430.0001 EDT Lunation 1080 Phase Waning Gibbous Age 16d 15h 31m Distance Light Time (from earth) 385,097 km 1.28s Elongation 146.59° W % Illuminated 91.7% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 117.69° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 297.69° Libration in Latitude 4° 01' Libration in Longitude 6° 05' Magnitude -11.8 Angular Size 31' 04" Altitude 10.11° Virtual Moon Atlas graphic Cartes du Ciel graphic Terminator In Sunlight Feature In Shadow <<< Endymion   <<< Mare Crisium >>> <<< Langrenus >>> <<< Petavius >>> Comments As the Moon rose it was a nice honey color, appropriate since one of the names for the Full Moon of four days ago is the Honey Moon. As it rose higher it turned silver and gray. There was some glow in the atmosphere around the Moon but no defined ring so whatever atmosphere is up there it probably isn’t ice crystals. We did some naked eye observing and could see the head and ears of the Rabbit, Sinus Aestuum/Mare Vaporum/Sinus Medii and Mare Humorum and Aristarchus, Copernicus and Kepler. In the binocular the eastern and western margins of Mare Imbrium looked much straighter than usual. I could see the Montes Alpes, Montes Carpatus and Montes Apenninus as a white bulging margin framing the mare plain. The east, north and west edges of Mare Serenitatis look straight with a bulding southern margin. The Mare wears a dunce’s cap. Tycho’s rays are still bisible. Palus Somni is subdued.

It doesn’t seem like we actually saw a lot last night but it took forever to write about it.

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Sunspots Observed

I got out a few times this month with my binocular but never saw anything. I have been checking the SOHO image on clear days and it it isn't showing anything or if what it is showing is small I don't even bother going out.

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
Feb	2.25	3	0.75	3.75	5	0.75	6.00	8	0.75
Mar	8.25	6	1.38	13.75	9	1.53	22.00	12	1.83
Apr	0.75	3	0.25	11.25	3	3.75	12.00	6	2.00
TOTAL	11.25	12	0.94	41.25	25	1.65	52.50	34	1.54