29 November 2004

Observing Location	Parkchester South Condominium Oval, Parkchester, The Bronx, NY
Atmospheric Conditions	The sky had looked pretty white just before sunset with some passing clouds but by the time I went to dinner it was mostly clear. It wasn't late enough for the sky to be really dark yet.
Instruments	Naked-eye Observing
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Constellations
Constellation
Category	Constellations
Time	29Nov04, 1910 EST
Comments	While waiting for the ISS visible pass I looked around to see what constellations I could see. There are no lights on the building cornices so there isn't a lot of light pollution overhead. But there are always lights around the perimeter of the oval right where you need to stand to see between the trees. They are full cutoff lights but are still bothersome (but no where near as bad as the ones at Metropolitan Oval). Cassiopeia (The Queen) I could see all of the primary stars of the constellation and η Cas. Pegasus (The Winged Horse All I know of Pegasus us the Great Square and I could identify it and α Peg and α And Auriga (The Charioteer) Capella and The Kids were visible just clearing the buildings across the oval from where I stood. Perseus (The Hero) I could see Mirfac, α Per; Algol, &beta, Per; and Gorgonea, ρ Per. Cygnus (The Swan) All I could see of Cygnus was Deneb, α Cyg, the rest of the constellation being hidden behind a building.

Target	ISS
Constellation
Category	Satellites
Time	29Nov04; 1714 EST
Comments	The ISS began its pass behind the buildings on the NW side of the oval and tracked across the entire sky disappearing in the SE. When I first saw it it seemed too bright to be a satellite. The predicted magnitude was -0.4. I thought I was seeing a plane making an approach to LaGuardia coming at me head on. But it became obvious that the light was tracking diagonally across my field of vision and its intensity was not changing. It appeared to move faster as it came abreast of me and tracked more at right angles to my line of sight. I tracked it across the oval and out over the buildings to the SE and began moving out to Unionport Road myself as it approached the building's horizon line. On reaching Unionport Road I reacquired it and followed it until I lost it in the glare of street lights and the thickening atmosphere at about 20 degrees elevation. It looked like a big moving Saturn.

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	Since conditions were good in The Bronx and Ben and Peter were planning to be at the park I went down there. When I arrived a little after 2000 the clouds were starting to move in from the West. By the time I had finished setting up my tripod and binoculars they were moving overhead. I made some quick naked eye observations of some of the constellations to determine my limiting magnitude and all that was left to see was pretty much the moon which was punching through the clouds. Even that didn't last for long as the clouds thickened. We packed up and while we were talking the clouds began to break up and there was a nice clear patch of sky overhead and to the SE around 2200 EST. There were more clouds moving in from the west though so it wasn't worth setting up again so we packed it in. The temperature was remained in the 40 and the wind was light. Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations Star Magnitude η Cas 3.46 ν1 Cas 4.85 ν2 Cas 4.65 ε Aur 3.01 ζ Aur 3.77 η Aur 3.19 ν Aur 3.99 τ Aur 4.54 υ Aur 4.76 υ1/υ2 Tau 3.86/3.42 γ Tau 3.67 δ Tau 3.78 ε Tau 3.55 M45 6 stars σ Ori 3.83
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Tac 102 - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Ben Cacace

Target	Mare Chrissium
Constellation
Category	Lunar
Time	29Nov04; 2030 EST
Comments	The edge of Mare Chrissium closest to the center of the moon was just inside the terminator tonight. The effect of elevation was very pronounced in the mountains around the edge of the mare. The rest of the moon looked nearly flat.

Target	Orion
Constellation	Ori
Category	Constellation
Time	29Nov04; 2230 EST
Comments	Orion was in a patch of clear dark sky just before we left. I was able to see M42/M43 and ι Ori, but not 42 Ori. Orion is very impressive being in an area of the sky, at least around here, where there aren't a lot of other bright stars to draw your attention. So you can see the whole constellation naked-eye without distractions. It makes it easy to learn which of the bright stars are part of the constellation and which ones are not. It is easy to see why people like this constellation.