26 October 2004

Observing Location	White Plains Road and Mcgraw Ave, Parkchester, The Bronx, NY
Atmospheric Conditions	At 0800 all I could see from my bedroom window was clear blue sky. By 1000 there was broken cloud at less than 25% cover. While I was observing between 1000 and 1030 it became completely overcast. When I arrived back home around 1100 I had mostly clear skies again. While I am writing this report it has again become mostly cloudy. I had hoped to get out with the Canon binoculars and the Baader film to observe the sun at higher magnification but I am not sure the clouds will permit it.
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binoculars and gold welders glass
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sun
Time	26Oct04; 1000 EDT
Category	Solar
Comments	The sun still has a line of spots marching across its disk, this morning from 7:30 to 1:30. Starting up at the 1:30 position sunspot 684 stands back from the limb and appears small but solid. Sunspot 687 is large and near the center of the disk. It appears to be a large black blotch preceded by a much smaller spot and trailed by a smudge nearly as large as it is itself. SpaceWeather.com says 687 is about 10 times the diameter of Earth. 692 is small and solid and is about half way down the disk from the line of spots. Next on the line is 689 with 690 nearly beneath is. They look like a pair. Over near the trailing limb, down near 7:30, is 691 which is small but solid.

Observing Location	Oval, Parkchester South Condominium, The Bronx, NY
Atmospheric Conditions	It was clear and mile with a light breeze. There is some very thin haze and an occasional wisp of cloud.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader filter film
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sun
Time	26Oct04; 1400
Category	Solar
Comments	The smudge trailing 687 is very large and complex. There is a smaller spot between it and the central spot of the complex. With higher magnification and the white filter there is another small spot trailing 692. 691 looked more like a smudge than the solid spot I observed this morning. Being about an hour after solar noon the spots are now on a line from 9:30 to 3:30.

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	The weather has come and gone all day today. It wasn't really clear when I got to TotL tonight but there were a lot of stars visible none the less. Around 2200 the clouds came in and it looked like it would be an early night. But by around 2300 they were mostly gone again with some stripes of cirrus here and there. I started out the night in a poly vest then moved to a poly lined jacked and ended up with the vest over it. It never really got cold - above 50 the whole time - but it was humid so raw.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben Tacahaschi 102 - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac

Target	Kemble's Cascade
Time	26Oct04, 2006 EDT
Category	Asterisms
Comments	I found the Cascade first hand holding the binoculars and then with more difficulty when they were mounted on the tripod. Initially all I could see was the bottom half of the Cascade but then the upper half stars became the easier to pick out. I counted 19 stars in all. While observing the cascade two high flying military jets flew through it. They were flying one behind the other and took up about 2/3 of my field of view. I tracked them across the sky for about 60 degrees until they faded into Earth's penumbra and they maintained their distance the whole time.

Target	Cassiopeia (The Queen)
Time	26Oct04, 2013 EDT
Category	Constellation
Comments	Cas is much higher in the sky than it was this time of night before I went to Canada. By around 0100 the Big W had turned into a Big M and was sitting in the NW.

Target	The Great Square of Pegasus
Time	26Oct04, 2017 EDT
Category	Asterism
Comments	The Great Square is already well above the big tree at the corner of the north ball field. Before going to Canada I would have been moving around the walk at this time of night to see Home Plate. By 0100 Peg was high in the SW.

Target	M31, The Andromeda Galaxy, NGC224
Time	26Oct04, 2023 EDT
Category	Deep Space Object
Comments	M31 was faint with some "small" stars around it. I got the impression of a smoke ring.

Target	Zeta Piscium
Time	26Oct04, 2300 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A close double. There is an obvious difference in magnitude - the right star is brighter. Easily split in my binoculars.

Target	Enif
Time	27Oct04,0027 EDT
Category	Star
Comments	I was trying to star hop to M15 from Peg. Enif is the end star in the single back leg of the horse. It is a very yellow star at Mag 2.4.

Target	M15, NGC7078
Time	27Oct04, 0039 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	I was not finding the globular cluster M15 where I thought it should be so Peter found it in my binoculars for me. I was close but hadn't gone out far enough from Enif. It was very faint and came and went.

Target	Sword of Orion
Time	26Oct04, 0058 EDT
Category	Asterism
Comments	I was not seeing the nebulosity of the Orion Nebula as I had often seen naked-eye last winter. In the binoculars I could see two stars there and a little ways away another star that I think was the Trapezium.