20 September 2004

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	It was crystal clear looking to the south at the buildings of midtown but there was a haze in the air that mad the sky between the stars gray and kept me from seeing the dimmer stars. It wasn't as breezy or cool as last night but the seeing wasn't as food either. With the poor seeing and being tired from last night I didn't do much with the binoculars tonight but looked thorough the scopes when they had a target.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Teleport 10" - Peter Tele Vue 76 - Ben
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Ben Cacace

Target	Moon
Time	20Sep04; 2000 EDT
Category	Moon
Comments	Last night the moon was near Antares but tonight it was considerably farther east of there. The craters Atlas and Hercules were prominent to the west of Mare Serenitatis as were Eudoxus and Aristoteles above it. Montes Caucasus and Montes Haemus were diverging around Serenetatis from the terminator. Rupes Altai was visible but not as prominent as last night and became less prominent as the terminator moved away from it. The speed at which the moon passes through the sky was very evident as it was seen passing behind the Time-Warner towers and was visible through the upper floor windows. You could see craters moving past the window frames.

Target	M57, Ring Nebula, NGC6720
Time	20Sep04; <2300 EDT
Category	Deep Space Object
Comments	A big cloudy area with a hole in the center. Observed in Peter's scope.

Target	η Cas
Time	20Sep04; 2302 EDT EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A triple star system. The close double did not split well tonight. The dimmest star separated well from the primary. Observed in Peter's Scope

Target	12 γ2 Del
Time	20Sep04; 2307 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A yellow double star pair with 10 seconds of separation. There was a diffraction ring around both stars at 60x in Ben's scope.

Target	NGC6826, Blinking Nebula
Time	20Sep04; 2318 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	A large area of nebulosity in Cygnus with a central star. In Peter's 10" it disappears when you look directly at it and reappears when you use averted vision. The effect is apparently more pronounced for Ben and Peter than it is for me.

Target	NGC7662, Blue Snowball
Time	20Sep04; 2350 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	A small very blue planetary nebula in Andromeda. Observed in Peter's scope @ 90x. Probably the bluest object I have seen to date.

Target	M52, NGC7654
Time	21Sep04; 0018 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	Visible as bright star with a bunch of tiny stars around it mostly to the left. There is an arc of small stars above and a row of small stars in a diagonal to the left. In Cas. Seen in Peter's scope, found with the Digital Setting Circles. I found it more impressive at low power where I could see it in relation to the nearer, and therefore bigger, stars around it.