24 July 2006

Observing Location	CSP
Observational Period	0415-0715 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was mild but very humid. The bench and all or out bags on it were wet or moist. The sky was clear except for the usual smog on the horizon. There was no air movement at all. After daylight the sky was very blue with no evidence of any haze. Good Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie Takahashi 22x60 binocular - Peter Fujinon 10x50 binocular - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target	Iridium 34 flare
Constellation	Peg
Category	Satellite
Time	20060724.0458 EDT
Comments	It was bright (Mag -4) and remained so for a long time as it moved generally N to S.

Target	Last crescent Moon
Constellation	Gem
Category	Lunar
Time	20060724.0504-0528 EDT
Comments	Peter spotted it first and I got it easily in my handuheld binocular after I knew where to look. It appeared as a thin smile spanning 9:00 to 4:00, about 150°, with bright spots at 7:00, 6:00 and 5:00. The illuminated portion appeared thicker at these bright spots. At 0536 EDT it started to come and go and I was not able to recover it after 0528 EDT. My previous record for an old Moon was 28d06h36m. This Moon was 28d17h22m so is a new record. It is also a record for my thinnest Moon at 0.8° the previous record for either a last or first crescent being 0.9°. But this moon is 19h3m from full so my closest moon to full remains 19h0m.

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Gem
Category	Solar
Time	20060724.0609 EDT
Comments	the sun rose farther east than I was expecting it ro based on where the Moon rose, but still much farther north than we are used to seeing it. As it passed behind the spans of the bridge it had the impression of being squashed in height or stretched in width. There was a lot of boiling all the way around the limb but it did not appear to extend across the surface of the disk, at least the spots were fairly constant. I saw one group of spots about half way from the trailing limb to the meridian. It was composed of one large spot followed by a smaller spot.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 1 2 12 Total 1 2 12 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots [27Jul06: I determined today that this group is actually in the northern hemisphere.]

Target	ISS close to Venus
Constellation	Gem
Category	Satellite
Time	20060724.0658 EDT
Comments	Not Seen We had already packed up and were about to leave when I got a 15-minute warning on my PDA so I set up again. I observed from 0655 until 0700 and did not see any trace of movement near Venus. I found this event on CalSky where they only listed the magnitude of Venus and not ISS so there is no indication that this will be a visible pass other than the fact that the entry was bolded. But that might be because Venus was visible. The event was not listed in Heavens Above. It does not get listed in PocketSat+.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2300-2315
Atmospheric Conditions	There were lots of clouds around the Bronx this afternoon and CSC was forecasting a miserable evening so I decided to go to the HBO outdoor movie in Bryant Park. I didn't feel too bad about it since the mocie was High Noon and the sheriff would be wearing a star. When I went to catch the subway downtown I thought I might be making a mistake since from. The subway platform it looked like the sky was clear all the away around most of the way to the horizon, but I was already on the subway and doesn’t have any optics and didn't know if anyone else would be at the park so kept going to the movie. The movie was a short one so we were through by 2230 EDT and I decided to take the bus up to 86 St and see if anyone was at TotL. I looked up at the sky and couldn't see anything but in light-polluted 42 St it is hard to guess what that might equate to at TotL. Tonight it didn't equate to much. The sky was gray to milky. Only the brightest stars were visible. It was warm and humid and there was no air movement. Transparency Poor Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye observing - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude

North 1.97 East Zenith 0.03 West -0.05 South 0.76 Object Mag Vega α Lyr 0.03 Deneb α Cyg 1.25 Sadr γ Cyg 2.20 Altair α Aql 0.76 Arcturus α Boo -0.05 Alkaid η UMa 1.85 Mizar ζ UMa 2.23 Alioth ε UMa 1.76 Phad γ UMa 2.41 Kochab β UMi 2.07 Polaris α UMi 1.97 Caph β Cas 2.28 Schedar α Cas 2.24 γ Cas 2.15 Ruchbah δ Cas 2.66 I did see some more fainter stars in the north but they weren't anything I could associate with a constellation from memory. I suspect that they were parts of Draco and Cepheus.