31 July 2008

Sunspots Observed

I haven't seen a spot since 30Mar08.

Observing Hours for the Year 2008

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	2.25	9	0.25	2.75	5	0.55	5.00	13	0.38
Feb	3.25	9	0.36	8.25	7	1.18	11.25	12	0.94
Mar	5.25	10	0.53	8.50	12	0.71	13.75	16	0.86
Apr	6.25	19	0.33	5.75	7	0.82	12.00	19	0.63
May	6.50	18	0.36	2.25	5	0.45	8.75	18	0.49
Jun	5.25	20	0.26	12.00	8	1.50	17.25	21	0.82
Jul	5205	15	0.37	15.25	10	1.53	20.75	17	1.22
TOTAL	34.25	100	0.34	54.75	54	1.01	89.00	117	0.76

Climate Summary for June 2008

The daily high temperature was greater than the normal high temperature 75% of the time and the low temperate was higher than the normal low temperature 78% of the time. The daily mean temperature was higher than the normal mean temperature 71% of the time.

We only had rain 10 days this month and only 0.1" or precipitation on 5 of those days. Where we ended last month with nearly an inch more precipitation than normal and nearly normal precipitation for the year we are ending this month over 1.75" below normal on both of those measures. I would be starting to worry about a drought if I didn't know that our water doesn't come from here. A check of the reservoir capacity shows that it is near normal for this time of year.

There were more degree days 71% of the time and normal degree days 10% of the time.

28 July 2008

Observing Location	CT
Observational Period	1015-1030 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Hazy Overcast Temperature 75° F Wind Calm Humidity High Barometric Pressure 28.87" Hg Steady Feels Like Warm The sky is a uniform white although I can not see any clouds. Central park is reporting clear and LaGuardia haze. It doesn’t feel as humid as is being reported. Transparency Poor Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Cnc Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080728.1015 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 33.2" Altitude 48.3° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 5.55° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 74.05° Parallactic Angle (P) 9.57° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen There is nothing on either the SOHO images or in Active Regions Explorer on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. Active Regions Explorer is showing that the pore of 1000 has just rotated onto the away-facing side.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

26 July 2008

Observing Location	PKR
Observational Period	0945-1000 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 78° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.05" Hg Falling Feels Like Warm It feels warm out and hot when you are in the sun. The sky could be bluer. Transparency Good. Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Cnc Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080726.0945 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 32.28" Altitude 43.1° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 5.39° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 100.79° Parallactic Angle (P) 8.74° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen There is nothing showing on the SOHO image. Active Region Explorer is showing a pore where 1000 used to be that is about to rotate to the back side of the Sun.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

---

Observing Location	South Street Seaport area; Peck slip, Pears/Water Sts Lat.: 40° 42' 30.86" Long.: -74° 0' 7.61"
Observational Period	2315-2330 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Overcast ? Cloud Cover Temperature 75° Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.87" Hg Steady Feels Like Mild The sky looks clear but I can only see one star which I am assuming is Jupiter. Transparency Poor Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I had hoped to see the ISS and a Mag. -7 Iridium flare tonight after the chantey sing but my environment was working against me. I don’t think my skies were clear as the weather history for Central Park is reporting. And my horizon was too high to see the ISS and only allowed a small window between buildings for the Iridium. And it looks like I jumbled my listing of the data for the Iridium and was looking 2° west of where the flare should have been. With an open horizon that would not have been a problem but in this case the flare might have occurred behind the left hand building forming the margin of my window.

---

Backing out some old email I came across an article at Spaceflight Now that says NASA wants to modify the launch dates of the next two shuttle missions. They had originally asked that each mission be moved forward by six days but have modified that request to three days.

Mission	Initial Date	1st Modification	Current Modification
STS-125 HST Servicing Mission	8Oct08 0130 EDT	2Oct08	5Oct08 0302:18 EDT
STS-125	10Nov08 2128 EST	Nov08	7Nov08 2239 EST

Action on the requested launch target modifications is not expected until 12Nov08.

If the modified modifications are accepted the mission profiles would be as follows:

STS-125

5Oct05

0302:18 EDT

Launch

7Oct08

0128 EDT

HST graple

2017 EDT

First of 5 daily spacewalks

12Oct08

2113 EDT

HST release

16Oct08

0004 EDT

KSC landing

STS-126

7Nov08

2239 EST

Launch

~2247 EST

MECO
NYC flyby

9Nov08

2011 EST

Docking to ISS

22Aug08

1702 EST

KSC landing

On the HST mission it is going to take them two days longer to get home that it will take them to get there. I am assuming that those two days will be spent in the neighborhood while initial tests are done in case something didn't go right.

I had assumed that it would be possible to see STS-125 as it flew past NYC, but now realize that the trajectory to to HST isn't the same as that to ISS and it might not fly past NYC.

Spaceflight Now article

25 July 2008

Observing Location	CT
Observational Period	1015-1030 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 75° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.13" Hg Steady Feels Like Hot It feels hot when out in the sun and very warm when in the shade. There are lots of clouds that appear to be partially high cirrus mares tales, some stratus sheets beneath them and some cumulus building out of the sheets – a very confused sky. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Cnc Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080725.1015 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 32.7" Altitude 48.8° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 5.31° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 113.74° Parallactic Angle (P) 8.33° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen There is nothing visible in the SOHO images and only one pore on each side of the Sun in Active Region Explorer.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

---

Observing Location	PKR
Observational Period	0945-1000 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 79° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.06" Hg Steady Feels Like Mild There is a horizontal stripe of cloud (not dissipating contrail) just above the opposing apartment buildings. The humidity doesn’t feel as high as the numbers indicate. Initially I estimated transparency as excellent but downgraded that to good after I started observing. There didin’t appear to be any variation in the air. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie CelEDTron Omni 20mm (21x) CelEDTron Omni 2x Barlow I should have brought a binocular with me to help me to locate the stars that I wasn’t able to see naked eye and could not see enough of in the reduced FoV of the scope.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

2019 EDT	Sunset Civil Twilight begins
1050 EDT	Civil Twilight ends Nautical Twilight begins
2055 EDT	It was dark enough that Antares was observed scintillating

Target Jupiter Constellation Sgr Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080725.2120 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 161.9° E Distance Light Time (from Earth) 4.20 AU 34m 54s Distance (from Sun) 5.17 AU Angular Size 46.9" x 43.9" Magnitude -2.7 Central Meridian I/II 58°/283° Altitude 18.6° Moons Starry Night Starter graphic Starry Night Starter graphic Jupiter is nicely framed by a triangle of stars that are fainter than the moons. Cartes du Ciel graphic (SAR orientation) The coma in SAR is bad. The top of Jupiter is salmon and the botton turquoise. Even an untrained observed commented on it unprompted. There is a ghost image of the planet to the lower right. Later in the evening, at high power I detected banding off the western limb. Ganymede is out to the west of the planet by about 1.5 planet diameters and is by itself. Io is about a planet diameter away from Jupiter to the east followed by Europa about 1.5 diameters more distant and lastly Calisto on the end of the line another 2 diameters farther east. By 2240 EDT Io had moved closer to Calisto – almost the reverse spatial relationship between Jupiter, Io and Calisto as what was initially observed.

2129 EDT	Nautical Twilight ends Astronomical Twilight begins

Target M4, Cat’s Eye Cluster, NGC 6121 Constellation Sco Category DSO: GCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080726.2140 EDT Comments I can see a faint spot of gray light where the cluster should be. It appears to be bigger than a star but is fairly sharpely resolved – as sharply as the coma of SAR will allow. It is possible that the coma is making it appear larger than it should be, but that is not the case with nearby stars so I think I was seeing the cluster. Planetarium shows one Mag 8.08 star nearby that I did not know about (I forgot to bring the Palm and was dealing only with the Pocket Star Atlas). The cluster is Mag 5.9 but that is spread over 26.3’ ov arc. I am not sure what that does to the relative brightness of the two objects, but still think I was seeing the cluster. Starry Night Starter graphic

2213 EDT	Astronomical Twilight ends
2345 EDT	Jupiter transits
2349 EDT	Moon rises

I tried hopping to some of the clusters in Sco and Sgr without luck. Sco is too low on the horizon and the good stuff is behind the apartment buildings. Without Planetarium I wasn’t able to figure out where Jupiter was in Sgr, although it was where I thought it was, and wasn’t seeing enough stars to be sure of my hop through the constellation up to the cover of the teapot. Also every time I would get somewhere and go to the atlas to try and figure out what I was seeing someone would come up and I would end up back on Jupiter.

There were ISS visible passes at 2126 and 2302 EDT but both were too low on the horizon to be seen from here and were only Mag 1.1.

There was a Mag -7 Iridium flare at 2325 EDT and a Mag -1 at 2332 EDT but I didn’t think to look at my pass listings when I got home and missed both of them.

I stopped along the oval to just look and think I might have seen a meteorite streaking across the sky from near Deneb to near Altair. Planetarium does not indicate any active meteor streams in that area now. It also might have been a moth catching area lights under its wings.

21 July 2008

Observing Location	CDLD
Observational Period	0830-0945 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Broken Temperature 72° F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.04" Hg Rising Feels Like H3 Lots of clouds around and haze where there aren’t. It is already humid. It rained lightly overnight but it is so humid that the sidewalks are still wet. Transparency Poor Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I got out of the house early this morning so spent more time counting cicada calls.

Start	End	Duration
08:38:04	08:38:06	02
08:38:39	08:38:43	04
08:39:04	08:39:14	10
08:39:34	08:39:39	05
08:40:09	08:40:15	06
08:40:20	08:40:26	06
08:40:20	08:40:26	06
08:41:09	08:41:17	08
08:41:09	08:41:17	08
08:41:35	08:41:42	07
08:41:55	08:42:03	08
08:42:17	08:42:25	08
08:43:06	08:43:13	07
08:50:00	08:50:06	06
09:13:26	09:13:32	06
09:17:54	09:18:00	06
09:18:17	09:18:23	06
09:18:37	09:18:43	06
09:19:01	09:19:06	05
09:19:20	09:19:24	04
09:19:50	09:19:53	03
09:20:16	09:20:21	05
09:20:48	09:20:54	06
09:21:51	09:21:55	04
09:22:40	09:22:44	04
09:22:59	09:23:04	05
09:23:27	09:23:33	06
09:23:54	09:23:59	05
09:24:21	09:24:26	05
09:25:05	09:25:13	08
09:26:24	09:26:31	07
09:26:54	09:27:03	09
09:27:47	09:27:54	07
09:28:47	09:28:54	07
09:29:20	09:29:27	07
09:30:30	09:38:35	05
09:31:28	09:31:33	05
09:33:27	09:33:33	06
09:34:12	09:34:19	07
09:34:19	09:34:26	07
09:34:39	09:34:44	05
09:34:44	09:34:52	08
09:35:08	09:35:15	07
09:35:31	09:35:35	04
09:36:50	09:36:55	05
09:38:00	09:38:04	04
09:38:15	09:38:25	10
09:38:54	09:39:05	11
09:39:20	09:39:32	12
09:39:44	09:39:51	07
09:40:10	09:40:17	07
09:40:25	09:40:29	04
Average Duration		00:00:06

I also observed an ant colony that happened to be at my feet. The colony was composed of tiny ants that were nesting in a mass of seeds that had been blown up against a concrete boarder to a macadam sidewalk. The nest must be confined to the mass of seeds, which wasn't very thick, and be more horizontal than vertical. The tiny ants were busy trying to get a large piece of detritus into the small colony opening. A couple of large ants approached the nest from different directions and went as far as the pile of seeds but not onto it while they thoroughly explored adjacent seed piles. A horsefly landed on the margin of the seed pile and did not molest nor was it molested by the ants. Later a smaller fly landed right at the entrance to the colony and seemed to be looking for ants to eat but they kept on working, apparently oblivious to it.

Target Sunspots Constellation Cnc Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080721.0940 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27 s Angular Size 31' 32.1" Altitude 42.8° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.96° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 166.98° Parallactic Angle (P) 6.63° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen Space Weather is no longer showing any spots but Group 1000 is still being shown on Active Regions Explorer.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

---

Another Dwarf Planet. The IAU has just given the object 2005 FY9 the name Makemake, (the Polynesian fertility god). It is the fourth dwarf planet. Makemake is a little smaller and fainter than Pluto (too small and faint for my optics but possibly within reach of Peter's 10" Teleport). It is a transneutoinian object is also classified as a plutoid (the third, the other two being Pluto and Eris).

That name seemed very familiar to me, but it wasn't until I read the article that it connected with my visit to Easter Island.

Spaceflight Now story

---

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	2045-2245 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Isolated Clouds Temperature 86° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.80" Hg Steady Feels Like Hot The air doesn’t feel humid but it is still hot. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked Eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

2022 EDT	Sunset Civil Twilight begins
2054 EDT	Civil Twilight ends Nautical Twilight begins

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Vir-Leo-UMa-Dra-Cam-Cep-Cas-And Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080721.2120 EDT Comments The ISS rose from behind a building and tracked across the sky passing between Alpheca and Merac and then between Megrez and Dubhe before passing below Polaris.     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time 2120:57 EDT 2123:45 EDT 2126:36 EDT Alt. 10° 44° 10° Az. WSW NNW NE Mag -1.0 C a l S k y Time 2122:54 EDT 2127:39 EDT 2132:27 EDT Alt. horizon 39.9° horizon Az. 248.6° WSW 329.2° NNW 49.8° NE Mag +0.3 -2.5 -0.5

2134 EDT	Nautical Twilight ends Astronomical Twilight begins
2207 EDT	Moon rises
2219 EDT	Astronomical Twilight ends

There was an Iridium flare at 2142 but it was only at 11° altitude and only a Mag 0 event so wasn’t worth moving to try to catch it.

20 July 2008

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1115-1130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Haze Temperature 87° F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.94" Hg Falling Feels Like H3 It is very warm even in the shade. The breeze isn’t doing much to mitigate the temperature. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080720.1115 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 31.9" Altitude 59.9° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.88° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 179.34° Parallactic Angle (P) 6.23° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen Space Weather is still indicating that Group 1000 is there but I can’t even see it on the high resolution SOHO image.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

---

Greg Smith graphic from Wikepedia I have been listening to the cicadas singing and have been wondering if there is any periodicity in their song so I started timing their calls while reading at home.

Start	Stop	Duration
0817:43	0817:49	6s
0818:33	0813:41	8s
0823:45	0823:52	7s
0824:06	0824:11	5s
0824:38	0824:48	10s
0825:00	0825:08	8s
0825:20	0825:28	8s
0825:46	0825:53	7s
Average Duration		7s

Then it dawned on me that I was only hearing a portion of the calls through the insulated windows (which aren’t doing much to keep the heat outside) so I would be better off making my timings outside. So when I went out to observe the sun I moved to a shaded bench and sat there for 45 minutes making additional timings.

Start	Stop	Duration
1122:09	1122:14	5s
1123:01	1123:07	6s
1126:59	1127:07	6s
1127:26	1127:33	7s
1127:35	1127:39	4s
1127:45	1127:52	7s
1127:52	1127:58	6s
1128:00	1128:07	7s
1128:55	1128:59	4s
1129:34	1129:40	6s
1130:09	1130:15	6s
1130:47	1130:51	4s
1136:40	1136:46	6s
Average Duration		6s

The results weren’t that much different and I came to the conclusion that the better times probably came from inside the apartment because of the insulated windows. They only let the loudest calls in, which were probably from the closest insects. I suspect that the short calls recorded outside were from more distant insects and I was not hearing the full call.

Regarding frequency of call:

the data do not permit me to make an assessment since I can’t be sure that I am hearing the same insect every time.

Regarding duration of call:

calls lasted about 6.5 seconds.

?

does temperature have an impact on the duration of the call?

Wikipedia reference

19 July 2008

Observing Location	VP
Observational Period	0745-0800 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Haze Temperature 79° F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.00" Hg Rising Feels Like Hot and Humid It feels very humid already and today is another heat advisory day as well as there being an ozone alert in effect. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080719.0745 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 31.7" Altitude 21.1° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.77° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 194.50° Parallactic Angle (P) 5.74° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2072 Nothing Seen Space Weather indicates spot 1000 moving toward the meridian in the southern hemisphere but it is so small that it can hardly be seen even in the high resolution SOHO image.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

---

It is so hot here that the cicadas have stopped singing (or whatever it is that they do that is making alll the racket).