7 October 2004

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	Clear Sky Clock said it would be a reasonable night and I guess they were right about it but it didn’t seem like it. There was a lot of moisture in the air but the observing was really pretty good as long as you didn’t want to observe to the south. The area of white haze from Times Square was worse than usual. It was evident as far east as Citicorp Center. Around 2200 the air started feeling very moist and by 2300 the shell of my binoculars was soaked and the lenses were clouded. We packed it in around 2330.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Tele Vue TV76 - Ben 10" Teleport - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac

Target	M31, Andromeda Galaxy
Time	7Oct04; 2018 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	I had a little bit of trouble finding it. I am keying in on &beta: And to get to μ And and then up to M31, but it is easier for me to get there going from θ And to π And and then diagonally two fields of view. This is strange since β and μ And are in the same field of view and μ And and M31 are in the same field of view, so it should be the easier hop. μ and ν And are in the same field of view. From ν And there is a row of dimmer stars heading off at a diagonal and M31 is just to the left of it.

Target	Neptune
Time	7Oct04; 2106 EDT
Category	Planets
Comments	I star hopped from α Cap, Giede, clockwise around the constellation (> Yale 7775 > &ro; > ψ > ω > 24 Cap) then straight up to δ Cap. Neptune was about a degree to its immediate right. It is fairly bright and star-like. Confirmed by Ben.

Target	Uranus
Time	7Oct04; 2135 EDT
Category	Planets
Comments	I hopped from 3rd Base in The Great Square of Pegasus, α Per, Markab, to and through And (> ζ > 36 > δ > ν Per) and down into Aqr (> α Aqr, Sadalmelik > Yale 8467 > &delta: Aqr > Yale 8500). It appeared as a dim but slightly larger than normal point of light. Confirmed by Ben.

Target	4 Vesta
Time	7Oct04; 2150 EDT
Category	Asteroid
Comments	From Uranus I hopped counterclockwise around Aqr and down to Vesta (> λ > ω > ψ > 94 > 97 Aqr). It was about 1/2 as bright as the star above it by about 1.5 degrees (97 Aqr). Confirmed by Ben.

Target	M15, NGC7078
Time	7Oct04; 2201 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	Observed at 147x (formerly 132x, 90x is now 97x) in Peter’s Teleport.. Globular cluster in Peg. It was a ball of light with a few point sources in the core. There was a star below it that I was focusing on. I could get the star in sharp focus but had the feeling that it was in a cloud of tiny stars forming a ball around it like another globular cluster. Peter does not see this effect.

Target	12 γ2 Del
Time	7Oct04; 2221 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	Observed in Ben’s scope at 48x A double star with magnitude difference in the nose of Del. The bright star is yellow and the dim one is white.

Target	NGC869 & NGC884
Time	7Oct04; 2252 EDT
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	Double Cluster in Per. NGC869, on the top, is smaller and denser. At low power I like NGC884 better. At high power NGC869 looks better than it does at low power.

Target	6 Tri
Time	7Oct04; 2305 EDT
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A very tight double - 4” of separation - below the triangle. At 80x in Ben’s scope I can just split it. The magnitude difference is visible as a gray drop shadow beneath the brighter star.