7 January 2010

Observing Location	Union Square
Observational Period	1700-1730 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Isolated Temperature 36° F Wind Gentle Breeze Wind Chill Effect 29° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.88" Hg Rising Feels Like Chilly Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100107.1719 EST Comments     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time 1721:27 EST 1724:09 EST 1726:40 EST Alt. 10° 40° 11° Az. SSW SE ENE Mag -2.6 C a l S k y Time 1719:24 EST 1724:01 EST 1726:45 EST Alt. horizon 39.6° 10.9° Az. 217.3° SW 138.3° SE 67.6° ENE Mag 1.8 -2.7 -2.3 I picked up the satellite in Manhattan south or maybe even a little east of there. It was above the skyline by a degree or two when I first saw it and was about as bright as it ever got. It tracked up 4 Ave appearing to move to the east a bit and disappeared behind the tower of the Union Square Hotel. As it approached the hotel it seemed to dim a little but was still very bright when it disappeared from my view.

There was another bright flare tonight just before 1900 EST but it was low on the horizon so I didn't stay out for it.

I think I have identified the problem I have been having with the predictions from CalSky. None of the predictions I had for today agreed with what Heavens Above was showing and I was not able to recreate them when I made a new search. I suspect that I got sloppy when I made my search earlier in the week and did not set the time to EST. CalSky will automatically set the time based on your location but it shows times in UT rather than your local time zone. This is the most likely scenario I have been able to come up with for the erroneous predictions.

6 January 2010

Observing Location	Bryant Park
Observational Period	1720-1845 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 30° F Wind Gentle Breeze gusting to Moderate Breeze Wind Chill Effect 21° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.73" Hg Rising Feels Like Cold and a little raw Transparency Fair Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

1642 EST

Sunset
Civil Twilight begins

1713 EST

Civil Twilignt ends
Nautical Twilight begins

Target Iridium 61 Flare Constellation UMa Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100106.1739 EST Comments Not Seen If the flare was visible at all it would have been in a small sliver of sky above 6 Ave beside the buildings of Rockefeller Center. I didn’t expect to see it and wasn’t disappointed.   Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1739:41 EST Alt. ° 28.8° Az. ° 26.2° NNE Mag. 0.5 Surface   solar panels

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100106.1743 EST Comments Not Seen I thought I might catch the ISS passing through some unobstructed sky on both sides of the Empire State Building but didn’t see anything. The only pass prediction I had with me was the one from CalSky which does not in any way agree with the one from Heavens Above. It is also too close in time to the second pass listed in the Heavens Above predictions. I have been back to CalSky and can not reproduce this pass prediction for either time. There is an obvious error somewhere (either at CalSky or in my copying and pasting the prediction into my calendar) and I was too late to see the real pass – the one listed on Heavens Above.     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time 1701:04 EST 1702:27 EST 1703:50 EST Alt. 10° 13° 10° Az. SSE SE ESE Mag -1.0 C a l S k y Time 1743:28 EST 1748:11 EST 1749:33 EST Alt. horizon 36.3° 21.8 Az. 215.5° SW 137.7° SE/td> 84.1° E Mag 1.4 -3.7 -3.2

1747 EST

Nautical Twilight ends
Astronomical Twilight begins

Target Iridium 51 Flare Constellation Cam Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 201001061744 EST Comments Not Seen I thought that I might have a little better chance at this one since it was higher and brighter although farther west, but didn’t see anything.   Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1744:45 EST Alt. ° 31.4° Az. 23.6° NNE Mag. -2.8 Surface   solar panels

Target Iridium 19 Flare Constellation UMa Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100106.1748 EST Comments Not Attempted Given that I hadn’t seen the previous and much brighter flare and that this one also occurred during the brighter ISS pass I opted to concentrate on the ISS.   Heavens Above CalSky Time EST 1748:36 EST Alt. ° 33.6 Az. 19.2° NNE Mag. 0.7 Surface   solar panels

1820 EST

Astronomical Twilight ends

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20100106.1834 EST Comments Not Seen This pass was shorter than the previous one but I thought I might have a little better chance of seeing it since the western skyline is a little more open but I saw nothing. The only listing I have for this event is from a Heavens Above printout on 28Dec09. I checked CalSky on Monday or Tuesday but saw an entry in my calendar for the right time so didn’t copy anything I saw on the site.     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n   s   Time 1834:20 EST 1836:38 EST 1836:38 EST Alt. 10° 45° 45° Az. WSW WNW WNW Mag -2.3 C a l S k y Time 1832:40 EST 1837:01 EST 1837:01 EST Alt. horizon 46.0° 46.0° Az. 282.4° WSW 287.5°WNW /td> 287.5° WNW Mag 2.2 -3.3 -3.3

1 January 2010

NightCal graphic

Peter gave me a copy of this year's Observer's Handbook back in mid-November and I set about mining it for data right away. The first thing I did with it was to plot the planetary data for this year.

Planet Distance	Planet Size
These two charts are a little hard to read but they have nice patterns in them. So I made line charts for each planet which are included below.
Planet Brightness	Planet Position
Lunar Distance

Mercury	Venus
Mars	Jupiter
Saturn	Uranus
Neptune

31 December 2009

Sunspots Observed

The sunspots are back. I have done a little naked-eye observing but none of the spots have been big enough for me to see them.

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
Jun	0.00	0	0.00	0.50	1	0.50	0.50	1	0.50
Jul	0.50	1	0.50	0.50	1	0.50	1.00	2	0.50
Aug	0.50	2	0.25	15.50	5	3.10	16.00	6	2.67
Sep	1.00	1	1.00	27.00	7	3.86	28.00	8	3.50
Oct	0.00	0	0.00	11.00	6	1.83	11.00	6	1.83
Nov	1.00	1	1.00	23.50	8	2.94	24.50	9	2.72
Dec	0.75	2	0.38	3.25	4	0.81	4.00	5	0.80
TOTAL	8.50	23	0.37	89.00	52	1.71	96.25	64	1.50

28 December 2009

Cartes du Ciel graphic

The Moon passed through the Pleiades tonight for the last time until 2024. Peter was talking about maybe going north to get a grazing occultation of Alcyone. I figured out enough of Occult 4 to get a graze path and limb profile. We would have to go up to Orange county, which is no big deal. But the limb isn't very exciting. There are one or two small valleys on the western limb. They are so small that it would be hard to be sure of getting to the right place to see a flash. There is one big valley, probably a crater rim, on the east limb that should be easier to hit. But it looks like it will be a brief flash followed by a long wait for a reappearance or a long wait for a brief flash then a reappearance. There doesn't appear to be anywhere where we could see multiple flashes.

annotated Occult 4 graphic

It has been overcast and windy most of the day so isn't a night for trying to observe anyway.

23 December 2009

Observing Location	Greeley Sq., New York, NY Lat.: 40.748963 Long.: -73.988185
Observational Period	0630-0645 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 20° F Wind Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect 9° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.18" Hg Rising slowly Feels Like Cold Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

0538 ESST

Astronomical Twilight begins

0612

Astronomical Twilight ends
Nautical Twilight begins

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Gem, Com, Lib Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091223.0636 EST Comments     Starts Max. Alt. Ends H A e b a o v v e e n    s    Time 0636:06 EST 0638:50 EST 0641:38 EST Alt. 11° 74° 10° Az. WNW SW SE Mag -3.4 C a l S k y Time 0635:26 EST 0638:16 EST 0643:03 EST Alt. 10.1° 75.0° horizon Az. 303.5° WNW 218.0° SW 131.1° SE Mag -2.2 -4.5 3.0 The ISS appeared from behind 1 Penn Plaza and slowly moved across the island until it disappeared behind a corner of Manhattan Mall. It took forever to reappear and move across Broadway and 6 Ave where it disappeared behind the Radddison Hotel (back in the old days this was the Martinique Hotel, a welfare hotel that Red Cross used for fire victims and there were many murders committed there). I moved a little further south toward 32 St and picked it up again until it disappeared into the eastern skyline. It was very bright throught the pass and appeared to move very slowly.

0646 EST

Nautical Twilight ends
Civil Twilight begins

0717 EST

Civil Twilight ends
Sunrise

While trying to get my bearings with my compass I watched the needle swing from north down toward west then through 45° back through north and over toward east. Just after that I felt the rumble of a subway train under my feet.

21 December 2009

Observing Location	McGraw Hill Building
Observational Period	1100-1230 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds mostly scattered between the Sun and the Sun Triangle Temperature 34° F Wind Gentle Breeze Breeze Wind Chill Effect 21° F Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 2988" Hg Falling Feels Like Cool Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye w/Shade 5 + Shade 10 welder’s filters- Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sun Aligned with McGraw-Hill Sun Triangle and December Solstice Constellation Sgr Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20091221.1200 and 20091221.1247 EST Comments Distance Light Time 0.98374012 AU 8m s Angular Size 31' 34.1" Altitude 25.5° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -1.76° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 168.40° Parallactic Angle (P) 7.05° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2091 There are three groups of spots on the sun today.Group 1035 is rotating off the NW limb. Group 1036 is in the SW quadrant and still close enough to the center of the Sun's disk that I should have been able to have seen it if it were large enough and my eyes good enough. Group 1037 has rotated onto the disk in the NE quadrant and is almost far enough onto the disk that it should shortly become visible.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) The Sun Triangle does not work on the Winter Solstice. It isn't because the triangle is defective but rather because They built a newer building (1212) that blocks the sun until about 1205 EST by which time it is already past and below the lower arm of the triangle. When I arrived at 1130 EST all of the plaza except for the building entrance was in shadow from that building and coupled with the clouds it didn't look like there would be sun in the plaza by noon. As the hour approached the clouds moved off but the building didn't. December Solstice = Winter Cartes du Ciel At 1247 EST this afternoon it officially became winter. I thought that happened a week ago when I had to stop wearing shorts. I used to call this the Winter Solstice but I have been seeing it referred to as the December Solstice this year and realized that, although it sounds strange, that is really a better name for it since in the southern hemisphere it is just becoming summer. So from now on, whenever I can remember to do it, I will be referring to solstices and equinoxes by the month during which they occur rather than the northern hemisphere season they usher in. I noticed that the Sun is not sitting right on R.A. 18:00 at the time of the solstice. It doesn't reach there for 3h 45m. I suspect that this is because Earth is getting close to perihelion and will be moving faster all the time until it gets there in accordance with Kepler's second law (equal area over equal time). Cartes du Ciel graphic