30 September 2005

Observing Location	White Plains Road and Westchester Ave Lat 40.83326044352751, Long -73.86249294816352 I got out late today and didn't think I would see the sun from PSC and this was the only place I could think of where I might see it and also have benches. There are no houses anywhere near here and it is not a park that gets a lot of attention so it is not a place that I consider a really safe one but might be OK for continued daytime use.
Observational Period	1730-1745 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cool, breezy and clear. There was some boiling on the sun's top and bottom limbs. Transparency Very Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binocular with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Vir
Category	Solar
Time	30Sep05; 1730 EDT
Comments	This spot is very small and takes prolonged observation to see. I had originally called it a northern spot but on examining my diagram I new feel that it is a southern spot. 812 SW quadrant.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 0 0 0 Southern Hemisphere 1 2 12 Total 1 2 12 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number 13 R = 10 * Groups + Spots

---

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2030-2330 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Chilly and clear but a little bit gray Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Coulter CT-100 - Charlie Teleport 10" Dobsonian Reflector - Peter Tacahashi 22x60 binocular - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binocular - Peter Pentax 20x60 Binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee

Tonight SAR was behaving very well. When I first set it up I found a spot on the bar where the view was very good with much less coma than usual. I never moved the cans after that and had good views all night. Peter had brought his truss bar for me to try out and I found that it was a little tighter in my cans and the views might have been a little better although there was still coma there. The comet tails are always on the left side of stars so I suspect that I could lessen it somewhat by adjusting the primary mirror.

I have filed the bottom of my TeleVue Quick Finder red dot finder fairly smooth and mounted it in SAR's finder mounting car with double stick tape. Tonight my first task was to sight it in. I put the blinking light on the top of the GE building in the top of the field and adjusted the screws on the finder to move the dot over the light then sighted with the finder on the top of Peter's building and it was in the FoV. I moved on to Algol next and found it easily. I am not sure how you are supposed to use this thing but it is working for me. Sometimes I look at the red dot and move it under a star and then pan up until the star is about under the dot and pan right to check the Alt adjustment. Other times I sight with two eyes and let my mind superimpose the red dot over the star. In both cases I am getting the star into the FoV or very close to it.

I was also having good success star hopping with SAR, finding almost everything I went after. At the end of the night I tried hopping to a couple of objects that I might not have seen anyway but that were in areas where there weren't a lot of hop stars and I got lost. With this more limited FoV I find that I can't figure out where I am if I get interrupted mid-hop and have to go back and start all over again. This happened several times during the night and several times on one object.

Target	The Double Cluster, NGC884 and NGC869
Constellation	Per
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	30Sep05 2050 EDT
Comments	I found the clusters easily. NGS869 is a lot larger than I thought it was and I am not sure that I have been seeing it in the binoculars or at least have been miss-seeing it. The two pairs of wide doubles are part of NGC884. NGC869 is a dimmer, larger cluster that is more sparsely populated.

Target	Kemble's Cascade and NGC1502
Constellation	Cam
Category	Asterism
Time	30Sep05; 2105 EDT
Comments	I hopped to the area easily enough but stopped short of NGC1502. I got as far as the middle of the chain and found a double star that had some glow around it and thought I had reached the bottom of the cascade. Peter moved the scope down over the bottom part and I realized that I was not prepared for how much bigger objects will look even though they are not greatly magnified over what I see in my binoculars but because my field of view is only half as much. In the binoculars I would see nearly all of the Cascade in one field of view and now I can only see the top or bottom half.

Target	Stock 23, Pazmino's Cluster
Constellation	Cam
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	30Sep05; 2110 EDT
Comments	It was an easy hop from Kemble's Cascade to Stock 23. The cluster is small and dim in my scope but there is an easily identified parolellogram (I think) there.

Target	NGC7789, Caroline's Cluster
Constellation
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	30Sep05; 2120 EDT
Comments	Seen in the Teleport Named for Caroline Herschell who discovered it. At low power it looked like two triangles of brighter pointed at each other with stardust sprinkled inside them. At medium power it filled the FoV with many more stars resolving but the bow tie appearance remaining.

Target	M34, NGC1039
Constellation	Per
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	30Sep05; 2135 EDT
Comments	I saw it in the Teleport but don't recall if I saw it in my scope or not. It looks like a big X of brighter stars with star dust surrounding it.

Target	NGC752
Constellation	And
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	30Sep05; 2205 EDT
Comments	An open cluster. Large and sparse.

Target	Colinder 399, The Coathanger
Constellation	Vul
Category	Asterism
Time	30Sep05; 2245 EDT
Comments	The coathanger crowds the edges of the field of view and doesn't look as much like a coathanger to me this way. It is harder to see it as a unified object.

Target	M27, Dumbbell Nebula, NGC6853
Constellation	Vul
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	30Sep05, 2323 EDT
Comments	I observed it both in the Teleport and in my scope. In SAR it is just an ellipse of brighter sky to the right of a bright star.

---

Observing Statistics Year To Date

	Night			Day			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	9.80	4	2.44	3.80	4	0.94	13.50	6	2.25
Feb	14.00	9	1.56	1.30	2	0.63	15.30	9	1.69
Mar	15.30	9	1.69	2.50	2	1.25	17.80	10	1.78
Apr	40.50	11	3.86	6.80	4	1.69	49.30	12	4.10
May	18.30	6	3.04	4.80	8	0.59	23.00	9	2.56
Jun	22.80	9	2.53	16.30	16	1.02	44.80	16	2.80
Jul	26.00	12	2.17	3.70	15	0.25	29.70	16	1.86
Aug	19.00	9	2.11	8.00	6	1.33	27.00	13	2.08
Sep	58.00	14	4.14	9.10	16	0.57	67.10	20	3.35
Total	225.50	84	2.68	56.54	74	0.76	288.79	112	2.58

September Solar Observing Report to AAVSO

Sep05	UT	Seeing	Groups	Spots	W	Location	Comments
1	2225	g	1	1	11	The Great Lawn	not too humid; partly cloudy, mostly in NW; moderate boiling
2	2105	g	1	3	13	Turtle Pond	Hot, still air, some hunidity, light variable haze; minor boiling
3	1850	g	1	1	11	Lincoln Center	warm, clear
4	1830	g	1	2	12	Lincoln Center	warm and dry, light variale haze, some boiling at the limb
9	2000	g	2	7	27	Parkchester	Warm & breezy, slight boiling at the limb, constant refocusing
11	1030	g	1	7	17	Orient Point	Cool and clear, blustery wind, moderate boiling
12	2100	e	1	8	18	Parkchester	Hot, still air, no boiling
13	2120	e	1	13	23	Parkchester	Hot, light air, low humidity; no boiling
18	2200	e	2	5	25	Parkchester	Warm, low wind; very stable air, no boiling
19	2110	g	2	3	23	Parkchester	warm & dry, light wind; minor boiling; mostly cloudy
21	2045	g	1	4	14	Parkchester	hot, moderately humid. little wind, little boiling
22	2025	g	1	3	13	Parkchester	warm, windy
24	2030	g	1	1	11	Parkchester	mild, clear, light breeze; little boiling
27	1930	e	2	2	22	Parkchester	warm with light breeze, clear skies, low humidity; no boiling
28	1915	e	1	1	11	Parkchester	mild, light breeze, mostly cloudy, air feels moist; no boiling
30	2130	g	1	2	12	Westchester & White Plains	Cool, breezy and clear; some boiling