. . . if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible . . . Ralph Waldo Emerson |
I observed tonight from TotL
Immediately on entering the park I noticed more twigs on the grass than I normal see. Walking north to TotL I didn't notice much storm impact until I got to The Great Lawn. Along the east side of the lawn there was a large pile of tree(s) ready to be hauled away.
I observed for a couple of hours from TotL but had underestimated my clothing needs again. The forecast was for 1% cloud cover but when I arrived the good part of he sky was covered with clouds. They blew out quickly though and I was left with a clear but a bit hazy sky that radiated a lot of heat. I had worn a cotton/wool shirt that I have found to be comfortable when the temperature starts to drop at home and my waterproof breathable rain jacket and had gotten to TotL without overheating. I had packed a midweight fiber pile jacket that I put on under the rain jacket as soon as I arrived but needed more clothes up top. It seems to be in my upper arms that I feel the cold the most. I am going to have to dig in the closet and dig out the heavy weight clothes.
Looking down due south I could see a couple of stars to the right of Fomolhaut and when I got my binocular on them I could see fainter stars between them and streaming off below the horizon so figured I must be looking at something named. Checking in SkySafari I found that I was looking at the right side of Pisces Austrinus and the top part of Grus. I then located all the major stars of PsA and that portion of Gru that was above the horizon.
Looking to the NNE I saw something faint just above the trees that I suspected was the Pleiades and found I was right. They looked nice in the binocular but are too big to fit in the telescope. I started ruminating on their name: the Seven Sisters. We only see six prominent stars today but there is speculation that when they got that moniker there were seven stars. But according to the mythology two of those stars, Atlas and Pleione, were the parents of the sisters (Atlas was the father and Pleione the mother). So that means that even if there were seven bright stars there at one time only five of them could have been siblings. So why are they called the Seven Sisters.
Jupiter eventually broke over the trees. Three moons were strung out trailing the planet and one leading it. They were fairly evenly spaced and all on the same plane. I could see banding on the planet that was most prominent on the leading edge and faded past the meridian.
At about 2018 a bright meteor appeared between the fish hook of Per and Capella. Based on my remembrance of observed Iridium flares I am estimating that it was around mag. -6, it was much brighter than Jupiter (-2.8). It's tail was short and fat and had a green or blue tinge on it's upper edge. The track was from west to east and descending. The impression was that it was nearby. The only streams that are currently active are the Leonids and the Northern Taurids, neither of which could emit a meteor on the observed trajectory. The Leonids are the next stream to become active in a week (peaking on the morning of Sunday, 18Nov) and the radiant's location makes it the likely origin of this meteor. The only information I have on the stream is that it is dust Cromwell Comet Temple-Tuttle and that he ZHR is variable. If this meteor is characteristic of the upcoming stream it will be worth watching for.
Around 2045 I decided to move down to TPO. From there I would get an earlier view of the Moon, which was scheduled to wake up at 2222. Walking around the west side of the Lawn I found that he Robin dormitory tree had been uprooted and had taken out a large section of Lawn perimeter fence. All that is left is a few feet of it's base and the roots sticking up out of the ground. Further south I found an area where several trees had been uprooted. At least one of them had fallen across the path and demolished a section of benches. At the bottom of the Lawn I met a parkie who asked if the bright star was a planet and went with me to TPO to look at Jupiter. In talking with him it appears that the Great Lawn is the most severely impacted portion of he park although he hasn't been into the Rambles yet. He says that the pile of trees I saw on the east side is what is left of three trees that fell on and flattened the batting cage of ballfield #4. It looks like around a dozen major trees were toppled around the Great Lawn, more on the west side than on the east. He said that they had clocked winds of 120 mph on the lawn (no information on how they did that) and the weather station at Belvedere Castle overlooking the Lawn only had a peak gust of less than 90 mph.
By 2200 I was chilled enough that it wasn't worth standing there for another hour to see the Moon rise. On my way south I noticed several times that the area I was walking through seemed to be more open than it used to be. I couldn't identify and areas where a tree was obviously missing so don't know if something was blown down or if it is just that the leaves have been blown off the trees. In the Mall the pavement on the west side of he walk was covered with pulverized vegetation that smelled like sawdust but there were no gaps visible in the columns of trees or crushed fences so it might just have been crushed leaves. The fence on he other side of the walk had about 4" of leaves piled up against it's base.
And they have changed the traffic pattern in he park again. Now they have it down to one vehicle lane, three cycle lanes and two pedestrian lanes. The cycle lane is marked off for two lanes of cyclists and one lane for the kamikazes. In aggregate they are only as wide as one traffic lane. The pedestrian lanes are very wide, one traffic lane each, and are marked off for northbound and southbound runners.
With all the traffic lanes that have been removed from motor vehicle service lately this is going to be a horrendous holiday season.
