22 September 2014

I celebrated the equinox today by going to the Sun Triangle for the alignment. The alignment must have been yesterday because when I arrived at 1245 the shadow was already well past the gnomon. I made a couple of pinhole images and some light field images anyway.

21 September 2014

This schematic is something I developed a couple of years ago to help me identify the stars of the Pleiades and it has been hanging out here as a draft all this time waiting for another Pleiades observation. So I decided it was time to publish it. And it won't be long before the Pleiades is once again visible in the night sky.

		Asterope 5.76
Pleioe 5.05		Sterope 6.44
Atlas 3.63 & 6.63
	Alcyone 2.86 & 6.29	Maia 3.88 & 3.88	Taygeta 4.30 & 8.10
			Celaeno 5.46 & 7.46
	Merope 4.17	Electra 3.71 & 5.71
	brightest
	faintest

21 September 2014

I am just reading a BBC article about this years Ig Noble awards wherein they explain the research relating to the awarding of this year's neuroscience Ig Noble to a team from the University of Toronto for research into pareidolia.

Pareidolia is the well known--to everyone but me--phenomena   whereby our brains to try and derive or create order out of disorder.  One of the examples they cite is people seeing the face of Christ in the burn pattern on a slice of toast.

Other instances, some less well-known, which I think fall under this umbrella are:

• The Turin Shroud
• Shapes in murmurations
• Shapes in clouds
• The constellations and asterisms
• The face on Mars
• The Man in the Moon
• The Old Crone in the Moon
• The Rabbit in the Moon
And, yes,
• The Black Cat in the Moon
• The Black Sheep in the Moon

19 September 2014

It looks like Summer has taken early retirement. At 1300 the temperature was still below 60° F.

I went over to Bryant Park to experiment with taking pictures of the Sun with the digiscope adapter. It isn't as easy as it seems. First I found that the FoV would be white even when there was no Sun present. I think I was seeing oblique light rather than the sun. I hadn't zoomed in so was looking at the entire FoV with vignetting around it thinking that I was actually seeing the disk of the Sun and wasn't understanding why I wasn't able to focus it. Then when I got home and was setting the camera up for more macro photography of my carnivorous plant I realized that I had it set to Aperture Priority and f/11 which is why I had to dial in +3 stops of exposure compensation to get a gray image. I am going to have to experiment a lot more before the eclipse next month but think I need to start with terrestrial objects and once I figure out the digiscoping with them move up to the Sun.

18 September 2014

I had an alarm set to go out and make an observation tonight and I have a vague recollection of shutting it off and looking at the clock and saying I had some time before I actually needed to get up.  Then I was fully awake and it was time to go out and I was not dressed and the tripod was still set up for macro photography.  I checked MoonMap HD and it said that the terminator was running from the Black Sheep in the Moon's right ear down to the tip of his snout.

MoonMap HD graphic

Without a head the Black Sheep in the Moon's body is just another dark splotch so I am saying he is not visible at this age of the Moon.
Virtual Moon Atlas has a little bit different take on things placing the terminator along the line of the top of his head, through his right eye, and along the top of his left ear, but that makes the left ear disappear and for me that left ear is what calls attention to the animal.

Virtual Moon Atlas graphic

17 September 2014

The Black Cat in the Moon is well into the shadows.  The Black Sheep in the Moon is still there but it took a bit for me to find him.  The terminator is right on the edge of Bullialdus and I suspect that it will be covering at least part of the Black Sheep in the Moon's head tomorrow.

annotated LunarMap HD graphic

annotated Virtual Moon Atlas graphic

16 September 2014

Most of the Black Cat in the Moon is in shadow tonight.  His left eye and right ear are right on the terminator.  His right eye and right cheek are still in sunlight but everything else is gone.  Kind of like a Cheshire Cat.  If you didn't know what to look for and where to look for it you wouldn't see him at all.  So I am going to say that he is not there any longer.

The Black Sheep in the Moon is still there and will probably last another two days but two days from now the twilight might be too bright to make him out from here.

15 September 2014

There are light clouds passing in front of the moon tonight but I could still see the Black Cat in the Moon and the Black Sheepin the Moon through them.  I suspect that the Black Cat in the Moon will be going into the terminator by tomorrow night but it is supposed to rain at l3ast part of the day tomorrow so it might be too cloudy. Make an observation.

15 September 2014

When I went out to observe the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter a while back I had taken my digital camera and digiscope adapter to try to get better pictures of the event than I was anticipating getting with the 3.5x telephoto conversion lens.  But I found that I had forgotten how the adapter works and every time I turned the camera on its lens rammed into the back of the telescope eyepiece and the camera shut off immediately.

I contacted CNC Supply Inc who are the Us distributors of the product and they sent be a copy of the instrucructions.  It appears I was attaaching the T adapter to the eyepiece barrel rather than to the notch where the eye cup normally sits.  So, for the record, here is a summary of the instructions for using the adapter with my Canon G1 X and Celestron C70 Mini Make:

1. Unscrew and remove the zoom eyepiece from the telescope
2. Screw the 1.25" eyepiece adapter onto the threads where the lens cover normally threads
3. Remove the eye cup from the lens
4. Remove the T adapter from the front of the Digi-Kit adapter
5. Place the T adapter over the back of the eyepiece, printing facing the eyepiece, and screw the three set screws in its margin into the groove where the eye cup was trying to keep the eyepiece centered in the T adapter
6. Screw the T adapter with attached eyepiece into the front of the Digi-Kit adapter
7. Remove any filters and filter rings from the G1 X
8. Remove the ring from around the base of the G1 X lens
9. Attach the Digi-Kit to the G1 X
10. Attach the eyepiece to the telescope's 1.25" eyepiece adapter
11. If possible, do not extend the tripod center post
12. Turn the camera on and set it to Macro mode
13. Zoom to reduce vignetting
14. Focus the telescope
15. Use a "cable release" to make the exposure

14 September 2014

NOAA radar says it is raining but I am seeing more stars than i have ever seen here previously.

It is nearly Last Quarter and both the Black cat in the Moon and the Black sheep in the moon are still visible.  I expect the cat will disappear, or at least partially so, on Tuesday and the sheep will hold on for a few days beyond that, probably longer than my the Moon's rise time and my local horizon will allow me to observe it.

13 September 2014

After today's rain the sky has cleared off enough, at least where I need to look, that I got a nice view of the Moon.  Both the Black Cat in the Moon and the Black Sheep in the moon are still there.

12 September 2014

I was out in Coney Island for an aquarium society meeting tonight and took the Mini Mak with me to try to observe Rhea occulting SAO 159034.  I set up on the boardwalk adjacent to the NY Aquarium's Education Building a bit early and it was a good thing I did.  It took a long time to weed Saturn out of all the planes arriving at and departing from EWR.  Once I identified it Saturn was east to see but that is all.  No SAO 159034, no Titan, and definitely no Rhea. There was a low deck of stratus clouds out in that direction that weren't helping me any but I think, at least for my eyes, more than the 60mm S&T was recommending was required.

Aardman Animation, Ltd, graphic

When I got home and got the telescope out of my packpack I went down to the corner of 6 Ave and 43 St to do a quick check on the Moon.  Both the Black Cat in the Moon and the Black Sheep in the Moon are still visible.

11 September 2014

When I left Brooklyn tonight it was mostly cloudy. When I got to Manhattan it was clear. Hopefully it will remain like this through 2100 tomorrow night so I can try to observe Rhea occulting SAO 159034. But in the meantime I observed the Moon again and was able to see both the Black Cat in the Moon and the Black Sheep in the Moon.

10 September 2014

I had to do it through and in the gaps between clouds but I observed the Black Cat in the Moon again tonight, this time from the SW corner of 6 Ave and 42 St. It is a very noisy place to observe from and I had to talk loudly to the two people who stopped to take a look.. The entire cat was visible and much easier to see than it was on my last attempt.

Adding to the menagerie, I also sighted the Black Sheep in the Moon. S/he is over in Mare Humorum. The ears remind me very much of a lamb. He isn't as in your face there as the Black Cat in the Moon is and I had trouble locating him in my lunar atlas program.

Moon Atlas 3D graphic

Moon Atlas 3D graphic

Moon Atlas 3D annotated with MS Paint

Black Sheep in the Moon Visibility
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
7Sep Waxing Gibbous 99% 13 Days	8Sep Full Moon 100% 14 Days	9Sep Waning Gibbous 99 15 Days	10Sep Waning Gibbous 95% 16 Days✓	11Sep Waning Gibbous 88% 17 Days✓	12Sep Waning Gibbous 80% 18 Days✓	13Sep Waning Gibbous 71% 19 Days
14Sep Waning Gibbous 61% 20 Days ✓	15Sep Waning Gibbous 51% 21 Days✓	16Sep Waning Crescent 41% 22 Days✓	17Sep Waning Crescent 32% 23 Days✓	18Sep Waning Crescent 23% 24 Days --	19Sep Waning Crescent 16% 25 Days --	20Sep Waning Crescent 10% 26 Days --
Legend Date Phase % Illuminated Age Report ✓seen ✗not seen -- in shadow     no observation

8 September 2014

Tonight when I went out to look at the Moon tonight there was a light cloud in front of it. It looked very flat but I could tell that the Black Cat in the Moon was still there.

7 September 2014

This morning I went over to Bryant Park to make a pinhole camera picture and took the Mini Mak to stare at the Sun. Tonight I took the Dobsonian back there to stare at the Moon.

This is the first time the Dobsonian has been used in quite some time. I found that the chimney extension tube was not in the focuser so I was unable to use the 2" eyepiece. And the motion of the scope in the rocker box wasn't as smooth as it used to be. It was very stiff and often resulted in overdriving. When I was packing up I noticed that the upper ends of the teflon bearings were darker than they should be and found that they were covered with dirt. Since the scope is stored with the top end of the rocker box pointed down They must have picked up the dirt from the clamshell bearings. I will need to check them during the week to see if the dirt is ground into the teflon or just on the surface.

I had a few people stop and ask to take a look then as I was getting ready to move across 6 Ave prior to the park closing a line developed. One guy whose son wanted to take a look said he thinks he has seen me in the Drip Rock neighborhood. His wife made him tell me his last name since it is Mars. As soon as I got set up across the street clouds started covering the Moon and within 30 minutes it was evident that the observing session had been cancelled.

Tonight the Moon was looking very gray and the Black Cat in the Moon was not as much in evidence. I could see his head. His neck seemed longer than usual and there was no body at its bottom end. I could see the feet.

5 September 2014

I had to go to a meeting tonight and when I got to Brooklyn I saw the Moon next to a deck of cloud and remembered that I had forgotten to bring my binocular with me. Fortunately the Moon was just to the upper right of the Empire State building when I got home and I was able to make the macro photographs I needed to make so I could take the tripod out to observe the Moon before it moved very far. The Empire State building was illuminated in green, yellow and either blue or red tonight, I have forgotten now and everyone was stopping to photograph it with the Moon so close by.

The light on the Moon is looking pretty flat tonight and all the maria are turning light gray but the cat is still darker than the surrounding portions of Mare Nubium so was still visible.

I looked up and there was a black stripe running straight up the sky. My first thought was it was the light pollution coming out of the World Trade Center site but then I realized that that would be brighter than the sky and was indeed visible down 6 Ave. Then I realized that it was where a jet had flown through a cloud evaporating moisture and creating a negative contrail. I have seen this before and suspect that I have written about it and possibly included a photograph.

The building on the left is the Grace building. In the center of the frame is the HBO building. This is a rather simple structure but the spandrels have grown on me and I now feel that it is a handsome building. In the lower right corner is the light from the Klieg lights on top of the MetLife building that turn night into noon in Bryant Park and make almost anything but lunar observing impossible there. In the upper right corner is the Bank of America Tower.

The same cloud 57 seconds later

4 September 2014

I was out in Brooklyn tonight hacking and left early to get home in time to see the Moon before it got too low and below my local horizon. I thought that I would be able to observe it until it was directly over 6 Ave but found that by 2230 it was already behind most of the buildings on 40 St opposite Bryant Park. I found that it was visible due Manhattan South (how can that be Manhattan South when looking down 6 Ave should also be Manhattan South) between the Radiator Building and the Empire State building and just on the edge of light pollution rising from the World Trade Center sight.

The Black Cat in the Moon was not as in your face visible tonight as it was last night but if you know where to look you can see him and he becomes more obvious/

3 September 2014

This image is particularly appropriate right now as I am going to try to determine at what ages of the Moon the Black Cat in the Moon can be seen.

I recently borrowed The Annotated Ancient Mariner which included the full original text of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner complete with the original engraved illustrations by Gustave Doré. The engravings were as interesting as the poem itself so I searched the library catalog to see if they had any more texts with Doré engravings and came up with The Doré Gallery: His 120 Greatest Illustrations, which the library hadn't lost yet. Among the engravings included was this illustration for the Jean de La Fontaine fable An Animal In The Moon. I had never heard of the fable but liked the illustration and the publisher even gives users permission to copy and use the images, which are in the public domain by now, as long as no more than 12 of them appear in any one place. So I scanned this image, all of the Don Quixote illustrations and a few others that I particularly liked.

I was not familiar with the fable but fortunately Google was. Or maybe it isn't all that fortunate. I think the illustration is better than the fable it illustrates.

AN ANIMAL IN THE MOON (VII,18)Men of their senses are the fools, If one philosopher may be believed. Another says by them we’re ne’er deceived If we but rightly know to use our tools. And both are right. Our sense is lent A mean, we must not trust to it alone. But then again the sense will cozen none If we consider distance, instrument, And medium. ’Twas wisely planned, The proof is not just now at hand. Some day I’ll give it. From our ground The sun appears but three feet round, But if I see it from the sky, It is of all our world the eye. Its distance shows me its true size, Its sides and angle I surmise. The fool believes it's flat ; it's round I know, I know it rests, I know the dull earth moves ; My mind the error of my sight can show, And all my senses’ first idea disproves. My mind, in fact, all the world over, Detects the true beneath the cover. I cannot really quite agree With eyes somewhat too quick to see, Or ears, again, somewhat too slow. A crooked stick the waters show, My reason makes it straight again, My eyes deceive me but in vain. The moon has in’t a woman’s head, they say : I know it can’t be so, but then its shape, There high, there low, gives reason for this jape. Men may find in’t an elephant some day, And something of this kind has England seen, A strange, portentous animal, I ween. There was sure change they said within the moon, No doubt we should hear wondrous tidings soon. Perhaps the many horrid wars Which vex the French were presaged by this sign. The king himself did graciously incline To see this beast amid the stars, And after all what was it but a mouse Which in the telescope had made his house ? The English laughed. I would the chance Of laughter came just now to France, To us who gain the laurel crown, The while our foes the combat fear, For victory holds Louis dear ; And we shall live in his renown ; The daughters fair of Memory Are with us still, we pleasures find. We wish for peace, but do not sigh That peace which Charles' valiant mind Has brought to England after war's array, With all the plays and games it knows to-day. Oh, could he our unhappy quarrel stay, What incense would be his, the second name Among the Caesars weighs the first in fame. Ah, happy English ! when will Peace atone Our feuds, that we too may seek Art alone ?

The Black Cat in the Moon

I went to Bryant park shortly before sunset to see if the Black Cat in the Moon would be observable in daylight, if it is observable at all today. I found that the eastern portion was easily seen but the western side of the face and body and the neck were not visible. About an half an hour after sunset the contrast had changed and the terminator had moved sufficient that the entire animal was visible. This was at 9 Days and 67% illuminated. I did not see Rupes Recta, the Straight Wall, but the area where it should be forms the right side of the Cat's body. Up north I picked out the Alpine Valley.

All images made with my hand held Android tablet

Black Cat in the Moon Visibility
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
31Aug Waxing Crescent 35% 6 Days --	1Sep Waxing Crescent 45% 7 Days --	2Sep First Quarter 56% 8 Days	3Sep Waxing Gibbous 67% 9 Days ✓	4Sep Waxing Gibbous 77% 10 Days ✓	5Sep Waxing Gibbous 86% 11 Days ✓	6Sep Waxing Gibbous 94% 12 Days✓
7Sep Waxing Gibbous 99% 13 Days✓	8Sep Full Moon 100% 14 Days✓	9Sep Waning Gibbous 99 15 Days	10Sep Waning Gibbous 95% 16 Days✓	11Sep Waning Gibbous 88% 17 Days✓	12Sep Waning Gibbous 80% 18 Days✓	13Sep Waning Gibbous 71% 19 Days
14Sep Waning Gibbous 61% 20 Days ✓	15Sep Waning Gibbous 51% 21 Days✓	16Sep Waning Crescent 41% 22 Days--	17Sep Waning Crescent 32% 23 Days--	18Sep Waning Crescent 23% 24 Days --	19Sep Waning Crescent 16% 25 Days --	20Sep Waning Crescent 10% 26 Days --
Legend Date Phase % Illuminated Age Report ✓seen ✗not seen -- in shadow     no observation