17 March 2009

Observing Location	Bowery between Astor Place and E 2 St, New York, NY
Observational Period	1915-1945 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 45° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.26" Hg Rising Feels Like Cool Beautiful, perfectly clear, early twilight sky. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I was looking for Saturn to confirm my last suspected sighting but didn’t find it. Below are the stars I did see in their order of appearance (or at least when I observed them):

0.38

Star	Constellation	Magnitude
Sirius	CMa	-1.46
Procion	CMi
Rigel	Ori	0.12
Betelgeuse	Ori	0.50
Castor	Gem	1.98
Pollux	Gem	1.14
Bellatrix	Ori	1.64
Regulus	Leo	1.35
Algieba	Leo	2.61
Alnitak	Ori	2.05
Alnilam	Ori	1.70
Mintaka	Ori	2.23
Aldeberan	Tau	0.85
Al Nath	Tau	1.65
Capella	Aur	0.08

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Observing Location	East 3 Street, Bowery to 2 Ave, New York, NY
Observational Period	2045 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 43° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.28" Hg Rising Feels Like Cool Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I went out to try to find Saturn again and immediately saw it over the street. It was brighter than Regulus and I had to look hard and block street lights to find Regulus (m 1.35) and Algieba (m 2.61). I eventually also found Denebola (m 2.14), Zosma (m 2.56) and Chort (m 3.34). I was not able to see any of the Sickle stars except maybe Ras Elased Australis (m 2.98), the nose of the lion.

13 March 2009

NASA is going to make another attempt to launch STS-119, this time at 1943 EDT on Sunday, 15Mar09. If launch occurrs as planned docking would occur on Tuesday.

The launch was scrubbed on Wednesday due to a leak in the hydrogen line fueling Discovery. NASA believes that contrary to their past experience they can repair the leak faster than they have on previous occasions and get Discovery launched in time to allow a complete mission with four spacewalks before the Shuttle has to leave ISS to make room for the arriving Soyuz spacecraft delivering the Expedition 19 astronauts. If they can't launch by 17Mar09 they will have to stand down until 7Apr09 to allow for the Soyuz mission.

There are some ISS visible passes on Sunday and Monday so there might be a chance to see it chasing the Shuttle across the sky.

Pre Docking Passes
			STS-119	ISS	Sep.
15Mar09	Begins	Time	2017	2019	2m
		Alt.	horizon	horizon
		Az.	SW	SW
	Max. Alt.	Time	2022	2024
		Alt.	78°	80°
		Az.	SE	SE
		Mag.	-1.6	-4.6
	Ends	Time	2023	2024
		Alt.	41°	42°
		Az.	ENE	ENE
16Mar09	Begins	Time	1910	1911	1m
		Alt.	horizon	horizon
		Az.	SSW	SSW
	Max. Alt.	Time	1914	1915
		Alt.	24°	25°
		Az.	ENE	ENE
		Mag.	-0.1	-3.1
	Ends	Time	1918	1920
		Alt.	3°	3°
		Az.	ENE	ENE
16Mar09	Begins	Time	2045	2046	1m
		Alt.	horizon	horizon
		Az.	WSW	WSW
	Max. Alt.	Time	2050	2051
		Alt.	32°	31°
		Az.	NNW	NNW
		Mag.	0.5	-2.4
	Ends	Time	2050	2051
		Alt.	30°	30°
		Az.	N	N

Post Docking Passes
			STS-119	ISS	Sep.
27Mar09	Begins	Time	2057	2100	3m
		Alt.	horizon	horizon
		Az.	NW	NW
	Max. Alt.	Time	2050	--
		Alt.	27°	--
		Az.	N	--
		Mag.	0.4	-2.6
	Ends	Time	2050	2104
		Alt.	41°	42°
		Az.	ENE	ENE
28Mar09	Begins	Time	1949	1952	2m
		Alt.	horizon	horizon
		Az.	NW	NW
	Max. Alt.	Time	1954	1956
		Alt.	16°	17°
		Az.	NNE	NNE
		Mag.	0.9	-2.2
	Ends	Time	1956	1958
		Alt.	horizon	8°
		Az.	ENE	ENE
28Mar09	Begins	Time	2124	2127	3m
		Alt.	horizon	horizon
		Az.	NW	NW
		Mag.	1.6	-1.6
	Ends	Time	2128	2130
		Alt.	25°	23°
		Az.	NW	NW

Spaceflight Now

12 March 2009

NASA is saying that STS-119 will not launch before Sunday, 15Mar09 at the earliest. Discovery has to be launched before 17Mar09 or the mission will have to be truncated to get the Shuttle away from the ISS before the Soyuz launches to deliver the Expedition 19 crew or The Soyuz launch will have to be delayed, which has not appeared in any of the contingencies made public.

• Spaceflight Now
• BBC
• CNN

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When white light is sent through a prism it is broken up into the constituent colors of the spectrum:

violet indigo blue green yellow orange red
<-highest frequency     lowest frequency->

Stars exhibit color increasing in frequency as their temperature increases:

Class	Color	Temperature	Example
O	violet-white	>30,000 k	λ Ori
B	blue-white	12,000-30,0000 k	Rigel
A	white	8000-12,000 k	Sirius
F	yellow-white	6000-8000 k	Procyon
G	yellower-white	5000-8000 k	Sun
K	orange	3000-5000 k	Arcturus
M	red	<3000 k	Antares

?	If white light is the sum of all colors of the spectrum how can there be white stars?
?	If there are white stars why are there stars of other colors?
?	Why are there no green stars?
?	Why do white stars appear on the H-R Diagram where green stars should be?

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Expedition 18 had to evacuate ISS to the Soyuz lifeboat capsuel today when mission controllers got blindsided by part of spent rocket motor that was predicted to make a close enough approach to ISS to require an evasive maneuver for whih there was not sufficient time to perform. The debris passed by without impacting ISS and the Expedition 18 returned back to work. The Spaceflight Now article says that an impact would have been potentially catastrophic but the Soyuz capsule was not detached and moved away from ISS. The hatches were "soft locked" in case there was an impact and the astronauts had to leave.

?	If we have all this great tracking that is watching space junk to give warning of impending close approaches why was this warning given at the 11th hour.
?	If the debris had hit ISS and the results were a catastrophic failute whould it have been safe for the Soyuz capsule to detach and leave the scene amidst the resultant debris field?
?	What would have happened if STS-119 had launched on schedule and ISS had to be moved? How far would ISS have been moved? How would the rendesvous be accomplished?
?	If the ISS had been destroyed and if the Shuttle had sustained a foam impact on launch damaging it to the point that it was going to have to go to ISS to wait for the crew to be rescued by another shuttle what would be done to rescue the Shuttle crew?

• Spaceflight Now
• BBC
• CNN
• Bravenet News

On Friday the 13th of March Reuters reported that that piece of space junk was larger than originally estimated.

Reuters

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Observing Location	Bowery @ Great Jones St, New York, NY
Observational Period	2045-2100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Overcast (?) Temperature 36° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.47" Hg Rising Feels Like Cold I could see clouds overhead reflecting back light-pollution. They appeared to cover almost all of the zenith. There were some dark spots that might have been voids or just thin spots in the lowering cloud base. I didn’t see any stars anywhere. Transparency Poor Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Iridium 30Flare Constellation Cam Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090312.2055 EDT Comments Not Seen 23° is right around the top of a billboard that spans 10°-15° of the horizon E of N so may have obstructed the area where the flare should have been of it might not have been bright enouth to have shown through the clouds. Alt. 23° Az. 8° N Mag. -2 Surface MMA2

11 March 2009

The launch attempt of STS-119 has been scrubbed for today. No word on when they will attempt launch again. Spaceflight Now was reporting about 10 minutes ago that they had stopped loading liquid hydrogen into the fuel tank due to an umbilical leak that they were trying to rectify. There are launch window attempts available tomorrow and Friday then they will have to stand down until 7Apr09 to allow a Soyuz craft to dock to deliver the Expedition 19 crew.

7 March 2009

NASA has formally set the STS-119 launch for 2120 EDT Wednesday, 11Mar09. Discovery should be visible as is flys by NYC at MECO.

• Spaceflight Now
• CNN

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Stars Visible to the Unaided Eye

• Stars are visible to the naked-eye doown to about magnitude 6
  • There are about 6000 stars with brightnesses down through magnitude 6
• Stars visible to the naked-eye all lie between 20 and 1000 light years away
  • there are about 100 stars closer to earth than 20 ly but they are fainter than mag 6 so are not visible without optical aid
    • Sirius is the closest (9 ly) star visible to the naked-eye from North America. It is also the brightest (Mag -1.46)
      • If the Sun was a ping pong ball Earth would be a pin prick 13 feet away and Sirius would be a tennis ball 1400 miles away
      • Traveling at 50,000 mph, the speed of the Voyager spacecrafts, it would take 100,000 years to reach Sirius.
    • Procyon is 11 ly away and is the 6^th brightest star visible in the Northern Hemisphere and the 8^th brightest star visible from Earth
    • α Cen is 4.37 ly away is is a mag. -0.27 star
    • &espilon; Eri is 10.6 ly away and is mag 3.7.
    • 61 Cygni is 11.3 ly away and shines at mag. 5.2.
    • τ Cet is 11.4 ly distant and is a mag. 3.5 star.
    • ε Ind is 11.3 ly away and is a mag. 4.7 star.

5 March 2009

NASA reviewed progress on the fuel valve issue with the shuttles and decided that it will be safe to launch with the used replacement valves (why am I not surprised). They have set a target launch date of 11Mar09 and will hold a Flight Readiness Review tomorrow to confirm that date.

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I may have included a version of this chart before but I was using 365 Starry Nights by Chet Raymo as a reference today and found a couple of measurements I don't often use to looked through all of the library's astronomy books to get the most complete list of physical attributes that can be used for estimating angular distances.

Estimating Angular Distances
0.5°	pinky width
1°	index finger width
2°	thumb width
5°	width of first 3 finger tips
10°	width of fist at knuckles
15°	span from index finger to pinky
20°-25°	span from thumb to pinky

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Observing Location	Avenue A @ E 3 St, New York, NY Lat.: 40° 43’ 25.87” Long.: -73° 59’ 7.9” I had to walk all the way to Alphabet City to find an open enough horizon that was also unobstructed with street lights. Generally intersections have a more open sky but I found that it is always darker in the blocks than on the avenues, or at least on the corners. I think it is because there are always street lights on diagonally opposite corners which puts two lights closer together than they would otherwise be.
Observational Period	2030-2100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear (?) Temperature 38° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.35" Hg Steady Feels Like Cold I didn’t see any clouds but when I was last out before dinner there were stripes of cirrostratus starting to form and it is supposed to rain tomorrow thru Sunday so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some clouds up there. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I went out tonight specifically to look for Leo and Saturn.

Target Leo Constellation Leo Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090305.2030 EST Comments I think I saw Regulus and Algieba (Leo). The two bright stars I was looking at seemed to be oriented correctly relative to Castor and Pollux (Gem) according to The Evening Sky Map for March. There were a few faint stars around but none that I could turn into the Sucjke ir belly, haunches and rump of the Lion. There was one bright star to the SW of the two bright stars that was not in the right position relative to Regulus and Algieba so that I suspect that it was Saturn since there is nothing that bright below Leo. I need to look again on another clear night and follow the line from Phecda through Megrez (UMa) to Algieba and Regulus to confirm all this.

Target Saturn Constellation Leo Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090305.2030 EST Comments I think that I saw it but need to make more observations to confirm it. Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 176.26° W Distance Light Time (from Earth) 8.3955476 AU 1h 9m 49.41s Distance (from Sun) AU Angular Size 19.71" Ring Angular Size "x" Ring Inclination ° Magnitude 0.5 Altitude 28.3038°

4 March 2009

I don't understand this. It appeared on the NASA web page yesterday.

In anticipation of a firm launch date, the astronauts will be preflight quarantined in Johnson's Astronaut Quarantine Facility Thursday evening to keep them isolated from potential infections.

I think they have to spend five days in there. But then they fly trom Texas to Florida and stand out on the runway in the open air for a press briefing.

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Observing Location	Bowery @ Houston St, New York, NY
Observational Period	1715-1730 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 34° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.30" Hg Falling Feels Like Cold The sky is very white in the SW where Venus is. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Venus Constellation Psc Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1715 EST Comments Even in a very white sky Venus was easily seen. I crossed the street and couldn’t recover it, assumedly it was hidden by the buildings on the south side of Houston St. Object Class Classical Planet Phase Waning Crescent Elongation 31.57° E % Illuminated 15.4% Distance Light Time (from Earth) 0.3480573 AU 2m 53.70s Distance (from Sun) AU Angular Size 47.92" Magnitude -4.6 Altitude 37.0198°

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Observing Location	Mulberry Branch Library (ML), Mulberry Street @ Jersey Street, New York, NY Lat.: 40° 43’ 25.43” Long.: -73° 59’ 43.9” This location seems to be darker than Bowery @ E 3 St. I was able to see Orion’s Sword and more stars in Gemini tonight than I have previously seen.
Observational Period	1930-2015 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 32° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.34" Hg Rising Feels Like Cool It feels milder now than it did when I was out previously. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye – Charlie Naked-eye - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

I was walking north on Bowery and heard someone call my name and it was Kin. He was going over to Mulberry Street Branch Library so I walked with him. When we left there it was nice and dark and I looked up and saw the Gemini twins so we did a little naked-eye observing along the ecliptic.

You only get to see a small strip of sky on this narrow street so we had to move south a bit to get better views to the west between buildings. We tried for Arcturus but it was always blocked by buildings.

Target Gemini Constellation Gem Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Castor 1.58 ε Mebsuta 2.98 μ Tejat 2.88 var η Propus 3.20 1   4.20 β Pollux 1.14 γ Alhena 1.93 ξ Alzirr 3.36

Target Orion Constellation Ori Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag.   α Betelgeux 0.50 var   γ Bellatrix 1.64   ζ Alnitak 1.77 Orions Belt ε Alnilam 1.70 δ Mintaka 2.23 var β Rigel 0.12 var   θ   3.70 Orion’s Sword   Trapezium Great Nebula   iota&; Hatysa 2.80

Target Taurus Constellation Tau Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Aldeberan 0.85 var β Elnath 1.65 ζ Alheka 3.00 I detected the Pleiades by its shape but was not able to identify individual stars.

Target Auriga Constellation Aur Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments   Bayer Name Mag.   α Capella 0.08   ε Almazz 2.99 var The Kids ζ Sadatoni 3.75 var η   3.17 ι Hassaleh 2.69   β Menkalina 1.90   θ 2.62

Target Moon Constellation Tau Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1930 EST Comments I thought the Moon was over β Tau but on pulling up an interactive sky chart to confirm that I see that it was over α Tau. That throws into doubt my observations of Taurus and Auriga. Lunation 1065 Phase First Quarter Age 7.95481d Distance Light Time (from earth) 369,887.2 km 1.23s Elongation 99.12° E % Illuminated 58.1% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) ° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) ° Libration in Latitude ° Libration in Longitude ° Magnitude -10.3 Angular Size 32' 18.55" Altitude 72.0340°

Target Sirius Constellation CMa Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Sirius -1.46

Target Big Dipper Constellation UMa Category Asterism Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.1945 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Dubhe 1.79 β Merak 2.37 γ Phecda (Phad) 2.44 δ Megrez 3.31 ε Alioth 1.77 var ζ Mizar 2.09 η AAlkaid 1.86 I looked for but was not able to split Alcor from Mizar.

When we had finished observing we walked north on Lafayette street to Union Square. There we split up and I went back down Bowery. Down around E 6 St I saw Arcturus and down by E 4 St I figured out what Procion was.

If I had a better knowledge of the sky or had had a sky chart with me I might have found Leo and Comet Lulin which should have been up by then but might still be too faint to be seen naked-eye from The City.

Target Arcturus Constellation Boo Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.2015 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Arcturus -0.04

Target Procion Constellation CMi Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090304.2015 EST Comments Bayer Name Mag. α Procion 0.38