19 November 2013

Rocket: Minotaur 1
Payload: ORS 3
Launch date: November 19, 2013
Launch time: 7:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT)
Launch window: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Site: Launch Pad 0B, Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Va.

It should fly past here about 4 minutes after launch. The weather here issupposed to be cold sand clear and the weather st the launch site is expected to be perfect. But there is a solar storm of an unacceptable intensity going on and they are having issues with a local tracking site so the launch might gets scrubbed.

The solar storm is not headed Earthward so that issue is cleared. They are going ahead with final launch preparations although they still have a destruct command issue and the tracking issue, either of which is enough to cancel the launch. I am going to have to head to the park and hope they get everything cleared. This isn't much different than going out for a Shuttle launch was except that with a liquid fueled rocket they had to scrub earlier so it was hoping nothing cropped up at the last minute rather than that a existing issue gets resolved.

2 October 2013

Never memorize something that you can look up.

1 October 2013

My calendar says that Comet ISON, which is supposed to become daylight naked-eye bright, is supposed to be visible from the Northern Hemisphere now so I looked it up in my planetarium and found that the old crescent Moon is right next to Regulus and Mars is right next to the Moon and ISON, in turn, is right next to Mars so I decided to give it a try this morning.

Mobile Observatory graphic

I was not able to find anything in the area but the one star to the north of Mars that was shown in my map. I don't know how bright the comet is supposed to be right now but evidently it is below the limiting magnitude of my hand-held Nikon She binocular.

The Moon looked very nice with a bit of Earthshine. The dark side looked round and the bright side looked like a bathing cap added to the round portion that gave the Moon the appearance of being elliptical.

There was something bright up to the right of the moon that looked out of place and I was having trouble figuring out the star pattern because of it. I .couldn't find the Big dipper so figured I wasn't seeing Arcturus. Orion looked nice to the right but it has been so long since I have seen the ,pwinter sky that I didn't recognize a wanderer in Pollux's crotch. After I knew what I was looking at I could just separate Jupiter and much fainter Wasat. As twilight progressed the separation increased until Wasat became washed out by the growing twilight.

Mobile Observatory graphics

There was a morning ISS pass so I observed that as it came from behind the buildings in Manhattan E and progressed across the sky to go into Earth's penumbra in the hind end of Canis Major in the SE.

ISS Detector graphic

6 September 2013

It was cool and the forecast was for clear skies so Peter and I met up at TotL shortly after sunset.

I started out at TotLe and got Venus and Spica and then Saturn. Seen from that perspective it is a really long way from Arcturus down to Spica.

I moved over to TotL when Venus was about to set into the trees and met Peter there. He had his TelePort 10 and I spent more time looking through it than I did my own scope. I was not getting enough contrast out of my scope to find anything that wasn't really bright.

They were testing the World Trade Center towers of light in preparation for next weekend's festivities so they were a bit of a problem as the stars of Scorpius moved through them.

Around about 2200 three college-age guys arrived and asked if we were out to see the rocket launch. Neither of us know anything about it. I don't know how it hadn't hit any of the news outlets I use as much noise as NASA seems to have been making about its east coast visibility. Had I had access to this information I probably would have opted for going to Battery Park and not had as good a view as we had from TotL, it certainly would have been different. I was watching the sky over toward Columbus Circle where the Shuttle launches have come from when I heard a Wow! And looking east further say a "comet" rising out of the skyline over Park Ave. it was very bright with a long tail of glowing orange gas. It tracked up the east side and flamed out around the SSE. I stopped looking and I heard Peter say something and when I looked again the next stage had ignited leaving a puff of smoke where it had occurred. We continued to track it until it set into the trees in the SE. It probably wasn't visible for much more than a minute. If it hadn't been for those guys showing up and mentioning it we might have missed it altogether and certainly would not have known what we were seeing it we had happened to have seen it. The launch was from Wallops so we will know where to look should anything similar happen again. (Next launch scheduled for 17Sep2013 but don't know what time yet)
news story

NASA Launch profile video

YouTube video of LADEE over Manhattan from New Jersey

23 & 24 August 2013

I can't remember the last time I did any observing from TotL or even did any serious observing. It was clear this weekend so I was out both Friday and Saturday.

On Friday I was out alone. I started out at TotL_E for the Sun and Venus and also got Saturn and a bright ISS pass from there.

I moved to TotL for the bulk of the night and picked up M7 in Scorpius. There was an Iridium flare that I missed. It was faint and must have been behind the trees. Within a minute there was another ISS pass.

I finished off the night at TotL_W where I observed the Moon.

Saturday night I met Peter at TotL_E for Venus and Saturn. We missed an Iridium flare from there due to me not having an alarm set. We were right under a street light so once the sky got dark enough that it wasn't worth observing Venus any longer we moved over to TotL where Peter concentrated on the globular clusters in lower Sagittarius and I worked on open clusters over the top of the teapot. I also found Neptune tonight. When the sprinklers came up we moved over to TotL_W for some nice views of the Moon.

1 August 2013

The Mystery of Meteors by Eleanor Lerman I am out before dawn, marching a small dog through a meager park Boulevards angle away, newspapers fly around like blind white birds Two days in a row I have not seen the meteors though the radio news says they are overhead Leonid's brimstones are barred by clouds; I cannot read the signs in heaven, I cannot see night rendered into fire And yet I do believe a net of glitter is above me You would not think I still knew these things: I get on the train, I buy the food, I sweep, discuss, consider gloves or boots, and in the summer, open windows, find beads to string with pearls You would not think that I had survived anything but the life you see me living now In the darkness, the dog stops and sniffs the air She has been alone, she has known danger, and so now she watches for it always and I agree, with the conviction of my mistakes. But in the second part of my life, slowly, slowly, I begin to counsel bravery. Slowly, slowly, I begin to feel the planets turning, and I am turning toward the crackling shower of their sparks These are the mysteries I could not approach when I was younger: the boulevards, the meteors, the deep desires that split the sky Walking down the paths of the cold park I remember myself, the one who can wait out anything So I caution the dog to go silently, to bear with me the burden of knowing what spins on and on above our heads For this is our reward:Come Armageddon, come fire or flood, come love, not love, millennia of portents-- there is a future in which the dog and I are laughing Born into it, the mystery, I know we will be saved

Quite coincidental to the time of year I am about 1/3 of the way through The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars by Christopher Cokinos. Both the science and history are interesting but I am getting tired of reading about Cokinos' divorce.

30 January 2013

The past has no existence except as it is recorded in the present. John Wheeler

13 January 2013

I was out in Brooklyn today for a class and there was a noonish FITSAT-1 pass so I took my radio and antenna with me.

	Time UTC -5	Alt	Az
Beginning of Pass	1155:37	10°	WNW
Maximum Altitude	1158:43	60°	SW
End of pass	1201:47	10°	SE

I observed along Atlantic Avenue between Vanderbuilt Avenue and Claremont Avenue (Lat 40.682086, Long -73.968301) where there is a low southern horizon.

I didn't hear anything.

Today has been another cloudy and foggy day.

12 January 2013

I am just back from Pier 84 where I didn't hear FITSAT-1 again. It is cloudy and foggy and I am again wondering how much cloud cover attenuates the signals of satellites. I have read that it does affect GPS signals and I doubt that cubesats are putting as much power into their signals as a military navigation satellite does.

Again I heard that slight decrease in the aggressiveness of the static at several locations across the sky and don't know how significant it is. When I held it the longest I couldn't tell if I has tracking it of was holding my antenna in the same position in the sky. Might I be hearing radiation from a far distant radio source? I have no idea if a radio source would appear on the particular frequency I was listening to.

	Time local	Alt	Az
Beginning of Pass	0625:57	10°	WSW
Maximum Altitude	0629:00	42°	NNW
End of Pass	0632:04	10°	NE

11 January 2013

I went down to Pier 84 today for a lunchtime NIWAKA pass but didn't hear any code.  A couple of times there was a slight lessening of the static roar but is was just a minor decrease in volume and a reduction in the "granularity" of the static - its texture seemed to be more fine grained.

	Time local	Alt	Az
Beginning of Pass	1213:57	10°	NW
Maximum Altitude	1217:05	67	NE
End of Pass	1220:11	10°	ESE

There was another pass this morning at 0547 EST but the park doesn't open until 0600 and I have seen the NYC Park Police there on more than one occasion so decided to pass on that pass.

When I arrived a Robin alighted on the edge of the pier and flew off as I passed nearby.  It landed on the water between Piers 84 and 83 and was quickly attecked by a mob of around 25 Ring-billed Gulls.  They pecked at the back of its neck and one succeeded in lifting it partially out of the water.  When it started flapping its wings the gulls backed off and it flew under the pier where the gulls could not follow.

10 January 2013

I observed FITSAT-1 again this morning from Pier 84. I heard something that appears to have a pattern in it so I am calling it a success.

	Time local	Alt	Az
Beginning of Pass	0643:58 0643:24	10°	WSW SW	Online Observatory Heavens Above
Maximu Altitude	0647:09 0646:34	80° 81°	NW	Online Observatory Heavens Above
End of Pass	0650:20 0649:45	10°	NE	Online Observatory Heavens Above

Heavens Above graphic

By the time of the pass the stars were all but gone so of little help in pointing my antenna but at least I had observed them when I first arrived so knew more or less where the satellite should be at key times. And I forgot to bring my ClearSPOT with me so Satellite AR wouldn't work.

I was using my ICOM ID-31A D-STAR radio in the analog FM mode with my Elk Antennas 70cm/2m Log Periodic antenna. I had the radio set up to record received audio.

I heard a couple of gaps in the static when the satellite should have been coming toward me but they were brief and it was a long time before the next one occurred. About the time the satellite should have been nearly overhead I heard several bursts of code. Once the satellite was moving away from me I didn't hear it any more.

I downloaded the .WAV file of the "QSO" onto my computer and imported it into Audacity. I could see where the code bursts were in the waveform even when looking at the file in low resolution. I zoomed in so I was watching the seconds go past in near real time and the gaps in the static were real obvious as they went past. I slowed the audio down to 1/100th of its original speed but it is still too fast for me to copy. I can tell that there are dots, dashes, and differing amounts of static between them.

I expanded and zoomed my display to see what the waveform looked like and think I can make out code characters.

As a bonus I observed ISS on a visible pass before the FITSAT-1 pass. I don't have the ISS frequencies programmed in this radio so couldn't listen for any transmissions from its transponder.

	Time local	Alt	Az
Beginning of Pass	0628:29	10°	SW
Mazimum Altitude	0631:43	54°	SE
End of Pass	0634:57	10°	ENE
Magnitude	-2.5

Heavens Above graphic

7 January 2013

Another daylight attempt at receiving FITSAT-1's CW beacon.

Pass details:

	Time local	Alt	Az
Pass Begins	0758:48	10°	WSW
Highest Altitude	0801:59	73°	NW
Pass Ends	0805:08	10°	NE

Today I used Satellite AR, another Augmented Reality program, to locate NIWAKA. I knew in advance that this program needs an internet connection so brought my ClearSPOT along with me. The program showed where FITSAT-1 would be and agreed with the information above so I am pretty certain I was sweeping the skt in the right location.

But nothing was heard. A couple of times there was a brief dip in the volume of the static but nothing like I heard on Saturday. It was cloudy out this morning. I don't know it that is enough to attenuate a QRP signal coming from space.

5 January 2012

I went out this morning to have another go at trying to observe FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA), this time by listening for its beacon.

The details of the pass are as follows:

	Time	Alt	Az
Start of pass	0816:24	10°	SW
Maximum altitude	0819:54	54°	SE
End of pass	0822:36	10°	ENE

I went down to Pier 84 and arrived at 0745 to allow time to assemble the Elk Log Periodic antenna and get it hooked up to the radio. I was using my ICOM ID-31A D-STAR radio in analog FM mode. To locate the satellite I had planned to use DroidSat on my Google Nexus smartphone but found that the program was frozen when I launched it. I suspect that it was looking for an internet connection.

As a fallback I began sweeping the SW horizon about a minute before the satellite was scheduled to pass through 10° and kept moving my sweep up and east as time progressed. I had squelch open so heard a constant static roar. But there was one place over NJ where there was no static when the antenna was pointed there. I backtracked to it but couldn't find it again so figured it was just an unmodulated radio source. The same thing happened when the antenna was pointed S. When I got over to E the gaps in the static became more frequent and then a pattern became evident. I was expecting to hear a tone but it became evident that the gaps in the static were the Morse code. They came in bursts that were separated from each other by 15-20 seconds of static. I listened to four or five bursts and on the last one thought the initial character was an H. This is consistent with what the FITSAT-1 web site says NIWAKA will transmit ('The signal starts with "HI DE NIWAKA ..." and telemetry data follows.') They are transmitting so fast that I can't even tell the difference between their dots and dashes.

I am reasonably certain that what I heard was Morse code from NIWAKA but I want to repeat the experiment to be certain. The next time I will hook a recorder up to the radio and bring the audio file into Audacity when I get home so that I can visualize the wavefore and slow the file down to the point that I can decode it.

An observing report has been sent to Takushi.

When I arrived at Pier 84 I noticed that the protective "tennis tent" was missing from Space Shuttle Enterprise up on Intrepid and a portion of its tail fin is missing.
Walking farther out onto the pier I found that the paving slabs were lifted up as though an earthquake fault had run through them.
I decided to walk north along the river to where Peter and I had observed the river at high tide at the peak of the hurricane to see what damage still remained.

There was no other damage along the waterfront until I got up to the transfer station at 59 street where the waves had undermined the sidewalk.
Nothing has been done to repair that damage and there was no additional damage up as far along the river as I walked (probably ~65 St).

From there I went across 57 St to see if anything had been done about the crane on the top of the highrise under construction there. It appears that they have removed the dangly (technical term) part of the crane (the boom) but nothing else has been done. There is no sign of a new crane being erected on that side of the building to be used to remove the remainder of the damaged crane.

There were three trailers full of sheet rock parked in front of the building so they are continuing internal construction.

This is the first time I have gotten a good look at the exterior of the building, I normally see it in the middle of the night from the TotL. It is, in my opinion, a very ugly building.

2012 Statistics

I lost a lot of data in an iPad crash and am still in the process of backing it all back out.

2012 Observing Hours

2012 Solar Observing

International Sunspot Numbers

January-June are definitive numbers, July-December are provisional

These are my observed numbers

Exoplanet Discoveries