5 October 2003

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	Tonight was another very clear night but very cool also. I saw dimmer stars than I have seen before. The temperature was down in the high 40s before we left at 0200 this morning.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Tele Vue TV76 - Ben 10" Teleport - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac

Target	Prima and Secunda Giedi, α 1 Cap and α 2 Cap, or Algedi
Time	5Oct04; 2043 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	This is a double star at the western end of Capricornus that I can just make out naked eye. These stars are the brightest stars in the constellation. [α 1 Cap is a double at magnitudes 3.2 and 4.2 &alpha 2Cap is a tripe at magnitudes 3, 11.5 and 11.5.]

Target	M31, Andromeda Galaxy
Time	5Oct04; 2116 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	I wanted to find it tonight on my own to fix the hop in my memory but had trouble tonight. It wasn't as bright as it had been on Sunday night, but I was looking in the wrong place too. The stars of And are not as widely spaced as I remembered them so I was looking too close to Cas. When I stared directly at it it disappeared the way the Blinking Nebula does for others. It was much easier to see and looked denser when the binoculars were in motion. After Peter called my attention to it an elongation along to 8:00 - 2:00 axis was obvious in his scope.

Target	NGC457, Owl Cluster, ET Cluster
Time	5Oct04; 2249 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	In Peter's scope at 90x tiny stars are visible running through the chest of the owl/alien - a heart. A very rich field of view. [13',mag 6.4] more information

Target	NGC7789
Time	5Oct04; 2307
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	This is an binocular open cluster off of β Cas. I have tried for it before but never had any luck so our skies must be getting darker. It is a dim collection of stars between a triangle of brighter stars and a pair of brighter stars of unequal brightness about three degrees distant. There is an arc of stars connecting these two sets of jumping off stars. From that arc of stars there is another arc extending at right angles in the space between the jumping off groups and this is what I am interpreting as the cluster. [13,000 ly, 30', mag 9.6] more information

Target	M31 & M32
Time	5Oct04; 2314 EDT
Category	Deep Space objects
Comments	Observed at 90x in Peter's scope. M31, Andromeda Galaxy: was huge and very bright M32: is only about 1/4 the size of M31 and much dimmer. I did not see it in my binoculars.

Target	Meteor
Time	5Oct04; 2318 EDT
Category	Meteors
Comments	A bright meteor with a tail streaked across about 30 degrees of my field of vision coming from behind me in the south and fading in Per. Peter saw it before it faded and thought he saw it break up into two smaller areas of light. I remember it as being faint yellow/orangish. It was probably a sporadic as it did not come form the direction of any of the active radiants.

Target	NGC752
Time	5Oct04; 2325 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	An open cluster in And. Huge and full of dim stars. It took up half of the field of view in my binoculars. [50', mag 5.7] more information

Target	ν Draconis
Time	6Oct04; 0003 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A moderately wide double in the head of Draco, the dragon. The two stars are about equal in brightness and similar in color, white.

Target	Lyra
Time	6Oct04; 0009 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	ε Lyra: wide and equal in brightness; white in color ζ Lyra: close and unequal in brightness; the dimmer star may be yellow, the brighter white δ Lyra: wide and unequal in brightness; the bright star is yellow and the dim one is blue

Target	NGC6543, Cats Eye
Time	6Oct04; 0015 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	A planetary nebula. It appeared in Peter's scope as a large blue ball, but not as blue as the Blue Snowball. [18", mag 8.1] more information

Target	β Cyg
Time	6Oct04; 0021 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A close double of very unequal brightness. The brighter star is golden and the dimmer blue-white.

Target	M71, NGC8938
Time	6Oct04; 0038
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	This globular cluster lies along the shaft of the arrow of Sge. In my binoculars it appeared to be a star. [13,000 ly, 7', mag 8.2] more information

Target	Moon
Time	6Oct04; 0059 EDT
Category	Moon
Comments	Mare Imbrium: - Plato is very light tonight, about the same shade as Mare Imbrium. - Archimedes is showing a very white rim - Montes Alps and Montes Apenninus coming off the terminator show good relief - Eratosthenes crater (named after Ερατοσθένης, Eratosthenes, the Greek mathematician, geographer and astronomer who calculated the circumference of the Earth using triginometry in 240 BC) appears to be a deep crater with a small crescent of shadow on the sun side of its floor. It is at the end of Montes Apenninus. Not much ray structure evident tonight - very little off Tycho and a little from Copernicus. The terminator is passing through a very rugged area in the south just to the right of Tycho.

Target	Cyclops Asterism
Time	6Oct04; 0112 EDT
Category	Asterisms
Comments	θ Tau could be split naked eye again tonight. It is later in the evening and Tau is higher in the sky and it is a clearer night than Sunday was, so there are more stars visible in the Cyclops tonight. Now there is a wide double at the base on his right near his feet. This must be the eyes of his dog. He is standing on his feet tonight and occupies most of my field of view.