31 May 2009

Observing Location	Park Ave South @ 34 St, New York, NY
Observational Period	1945-2015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 72° F Wind Gentle Breeze gusting to Fresh Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.79" Hg Rising quickly Feels Like Cool It had been cloudy earlier and looked like impending rain but is clearing off as I am observing. The wind is strong and gusting. Dust is being blown up from the streets and is getting in my eyes. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Manhattan Henge Constellation Tau Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090531.2010 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.0140143 AU 8m 26.00s Angular Size 31' 32.76" Altitude 1.15° Heliographic Latitude (B0) ° Heliographic Longitude (L0) ° Parallactic Angle (P) ° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2084 It looks like the times listed in Space.com are wrong again today. I observed the Sun to be lined up with the center of 34 St and above the mountains on the NJ horizon at 2010 EDT. When I got back into the street on the next light change the Sun had moved to the northern side of the street and was 1/3 down. There is no way that the Sun would be lined up with the street grid at 2017 EDT. It was the usual observer pandemonium as people ran into the street to watch and photograph the Sun on each red light for the crosstown traffic. But added to the confusion this year was a backup of traffic heading east. I suspect that President Obama was still in town causing the delays.

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Sunspots Observed

I was not able to do any solar observing this month. TheSun has been a little more active this month than last but there probably wasn't anything there that I would be able to pick out with binoculars anyway.

Observing Hours for the Year 2009

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	0.50	2	0.25	0.25	1	0.25	0.75	2	0.38
Feb	2.75	11	0.25	2.50	9	0.28	2.25	14	0.38
Mar	0.00	0	0.0	4.00	7	0.57	4.00	7	0.57
Apr	0.25	1	0.25	0.75	2	0.38	1.00	2	0.50
May	1.25	2	0.63	0.25	1	0.25	1.50	3	0.50
TOTAL	4.75	16	0.30	7.75	20	0.39	12.50	28	0.45

30 May 2009

Observing Location	6 Ave @ 14 St, New York, NY Lat.: 40.7373724273546° Long.: -73.9967608451843°
Observational Period	1930-2015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 71° F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.73" Hg Rising Feels Like Mile It had been cloudy out to the west earlier in the day but seems to be clearing up now. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Manhattan Henge Constellation Tau Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090530.2010 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.0138652 AU 8m 26.92s Angular Size 31' 33.04" Altitude 1.15° Heliographic Latitude (B0) ° Heliographic Longitude (L0) ° Parallactic Angle (P) ° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2084 Space.com said the event would take place at 2017 EDT and at that time the sun would be ½ below the horizon. I found that the sun was lined up with the center divider line of the street at 2010 EDT and the entire sun was above the horizon which is a hill on the NJ side of the Hudson River so well above where the real horizon would be if I were looking out over the ocean. President Obama was having dinner in the West Village when I arrived in Washington Square Park to read before the Henge event. I figured that since he was going to the theater tonight he would be leaving the Village around 1930 EDT so went up to 14 St about then. I saw the motorcade pass by and the presidential lomouisine (I thought it was supposed to be a two-tone venicle) but can't say that I saw him waving as others saw. Space.com

20 May 2009

Observing Location	2 Ave @ E 3 St, New York, NY
Observational Period	2115-2130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	The weather instruments in Central Park seem to have been down from around 1800 EDT 20May09 until sometime in the early morning of 21May09. Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature ° F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure " Hg Feels Like Mild Transparency Fair Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Iridium 63 Flare Constellation Her Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20090520.2128 EDT Comments Not Seen I may have estimated the asimuth incorrectly. I don't think there was enough cloud up there to have obscured a mag -2. I was able to see Spica (Mag. 0.98) lower down on the horizon. Alt. 50.9° Az. 71° ENE Mag. -2 Surface MMA1

19 May 2009

I read an editorial on the last page of the June issue of Sky and Telescope where the big advantage to Moon exploration and colonization is that it take 1/22 as much fuel to launch from deep space from the Moon as it does to launch from Earth. But we are Earth-centric and everything that goes anywhere comes from and is controlled by here. Mission control practically has to tell astronauts it is OK to breathe. So where does the fuel savings in launches from the Moon come from if we first have to launch components from Earth to the Moon?

4 May 2009

Sientists think NYC was hit by a giant tsunami about 2,300 years ago. There is debate on whether the evidence is actually a tsunami and what caused it if it was. Some people think it was an underwater earthquake and others a meteorite or asteroid impact.

BBC

1 May 2009

NASA has confirmed 1401 EDT on 11May09 as the target for the launch of the HST Servicing mission.

They have also announced that they are laying off as of today the first 160 of about 900 Shuttle workers to free up funds so they will be able to remain within budget through the end of next year when the Shuttle fleet will be retired. They said that everyone being laid off right now is contractor personnel who are engaged in Shuttle construction. I would assume that the contractors have some subcontractors working on the Shuttle program and that these contractors to the contractors will be gin to jump ship and move to the private space industry causing an even faster trim down of the Shuttle program staff.

Spaceflight Now

1 May 2009

Let There Be New Flowering let there be new flowering in the fields    let the fields turn mellow for the men let the men keep tender through the time    let the time be wrested from the war let the war be won let love be at the end Lucille Clifton