31 October 2004

A minute ago it was almost 0200. Now it is only 0100. This is all so confusing. I am just figuring out where the stars belong after an observing hiatus and now they will all be moved again. Why can't we leave time alone. If I turn my clock back to 0100 every time it reaches 0200 it will never get to be 0300.

Now I have to remember that our time difference from UTC is -5 again.

Observing Location	Oval, Parkchester South condominium, The Bronx, NY
Atmospheric Conditions	It was a beautiful afternoon today with temperatures topping out over 70F. It was windy though with 15 MPH winds gusting to 25. A few clouds occasionally drifted past but primarily I had a beautiful blue sky. Clouds are starting to build in now but NOAA says only scattered clouds through 0100 tonight.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader solar filter film
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Time	31Oct04; 1353 EST
Category	Solar
Comments	687 This sunspot must be really tiny. It is also greatly foreshortened since it is over by the leading limb. All I could make out was a whole in the granularity of the sun's surface - a whiter area - right on the limb where the spot probably is. 689 Just a hint of a tiny spot. It is definitely dark and not just a smudge. 690 This appears to be a vertically elongated string of spots with the largest one nearest the top of the string. 691 A large irregular blob and widely separated smaller spot. It is more like two individual spots now than the complex it was last week. It looks to me like it is dissipating. 693 Two spots with a smudge between them. There is a penumbra visible around the spots. It looks like a big spot on the right with an associated smudge trailing it outside the it's penumbra and within a clear area surrounding the spot and smudge, and a smaller similar complex on the left, with the two clear areas touching between the smudges. Later: now I am seeing a small central spot with a large penumbra around it between the two end spots. It now looks more like a complex of three spots. I don't remember seeing large spots below the equator. This one must be 10-15 earth diameters. 695 A small spot with an even smaller one to the upper left. I didn't get my camera aligned right on the optical axis of the binocular lens so this image is a little dark around the edges of the Sun, but that is what is allowing the sunpots to be seen. In the images where I was properly aligned all I got was a featureless white disk. NASA's picture is better, but then mine didn't cost billions of dollars.

Target	Squirrels
Time	31Oct04; 1500 EST
Category	Fauna
Comments	Lots of squirrels around the bench I am sitting on but no oak trees for them to collect acorns from. The closest squirrel appears not to be collecting new nuts but digging up from the south side of his tree ones he has already collected and re-burying them on the north side of the tree. It looks like there is a common foraging area out in the middle of the trees where everyone gets along. But if someone gets too close to one of the trees they get chased back to their own tree. One victor even pillaged a vanquished squirrels newly buried seeds. Given the choice between Sycamore and Maple trees the squirrels prefer to nest in the Sycamores.

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	We were tight on the edge of a weather system last night and fortunately we were on the clear air side of it. It was very mild although a little moist with the temperature never dropping below 55. Winds were mostly light (<6 MPH) with occasional gusts to 9 MPH. It was enough to set Peter's scope in motion while I was observing through it. The air was very clear and the sky dark until the moon got up above the trees.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Tacahaschi 102 mm refractor - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Ben Cacace

Target	The Coathanger, Brocchi's Cluster, Collinder 399
Time	31Oct04; 2150 EST
Category	Asterism
Comments	Although it is called a cluster research indicates that only 6 of the bright stars have the same proper motion so it is more properly called an asterism. It is a little over a field of view diagonally down from the feathers of Sge Starhop to The Coathanger asterism. More information on Brocchi's Cluster.

Target	ο Cyg, 30 Cyg and 31 Cyg
Time	31Oct04; 2209 EST
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A moderately wide double. 31 Cyg, the brighter star, is gold and has a dimmer star next to it. 30 Cyg is moderately far away and is blue-white. 32 Cyg, a good bit distant (probably half a field or more), is about the same brightness and color as 31 Cyg. It is not part of the double.

Target	8 Lac
Time	31Oct04; 2242 EST
Category	Double Stars
Comments	A tight double at 22 arc seconds. We can split it in Ben's binoculars and it is easy in mine.

Target	35 Psc
Time	31Oct04; 2253 EST
Category	Double Stars
Comments	This was a challenge object for my binoculars to see how close a double we can split in them. It is a very close double at 11.5 arc seconds. I would not have picked it out as a double myself. I think it is a real push for my binoculars. I could only see it as a double by greatly defocusing it whereupon two fuzzy balls appeared where I had seen one specular object before.

Target	Moon
Time	31Oct04; 2259 EST
Category	Moon
Comments	The mountains in Mare Imbrium just beneath Plato are very obvious in Peter's scope. I can't tell what they are in my binoculars, but they appear as bright white patches in the mare.

Target	υ Aur
Time	31Oct04; 2320 EST
Category	Stars
Comments	While star hopping to try to find M37 and M37 I came across this very red star, a deep orange.

Target	θ Tua
Time	31Oct04; 2231
Category	Double Star
Comments	The double in the Hyades could be split naked-eye even with the moon nearby lessening the contrast with the background sky.

Target	M42, The Great Orion Nebula, and M43
Time	31Oct04; 2339 EST
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	M42 is a faint smudge around the Trapezium. M43 merges into it around a dimmer central star. In Peter's scope at 90x they look like a big molar with the roots paralleling a line of three bright stars beneath the Trapezium. The obvious part of M42 looks like a right triangle with its hypotenuse against the Trapezium. The Trapezium really takes a bight out of the nebulosity.

Target	41 Dra
Time	1Nov04; 0003 EST
Category	Double Star
Comments	Ben got this 18.8 arc second, Mag 6.7/7.0 double as a challenge star for his binoculars and was able to split it. It was easier for me to split it when I threw the stars out of focus. In my binoculars it is an easy split with lots of dark sky between the stars.

Target	Saturn
Time	1Nov04; 0008 EST
Category	Planets
Comments	Saturn was just above the trees on a line with Castor and Pollux. It was about twice the distance from Pollux as Pollux is from Castor. It looks like a cigar. Titan is visible to the upper left. In Peter's scope the Cassini Division was visible in the rings.

Target	NGC2244 and the Rosette Nebula, NGC2237
Time	1Nov04; 0022 EST
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	NGC2244 is a large open cluster in Mon. Looks like a big X composed of five bright star surrounded by many dimmer ones. [The APOD image referenced below indicates that NGC2244 is embedded in the Rosette Nebula and illuminates it. I definitely saw NGC2244 but was looking for a smaller and more distant object for the nebula and completely missed any nebulosity that might have been surrounding NGC2244 attributing it to atmospheric lightening of the background.] More information on NGC2244. More information on the Rosette Nebula.

Target	NGC2301
Time	1Nov04; 0038 EST
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	An open cluster in Mon. Faint stars. I used it when trying to star hop to Dolidze 25, the biggest open cluster.

Target	ξ Ori
Time	1Nov04; 0108 EST
Category	Double Star
Comments	Observed in Peter's scope at 60x. It is a quadruple star in the elbow of Orion's upraised arm. The brightest star has a fairly close very faint companion which would be easily missed. The two other stars in the system are dim compared to the bright star, but not as dim as the dimmest star. They appear to be about equal in brightness and are easily split.

Last night shortly after midnight a cyclist grazed one of my tripod legs while I was not standing next to it and it was knocked over. One of the binocular eyepieces took most of the impact when it hit the ground and the plastic housing that holds it over the porro prism was broken completely off the top of the binoculars. The prism is intact although it appears to have been scratched where light exits it to go to the ocular. The focusing wheel is grabbing so something has probably happened to the gears also. It all looks repairable, but at what cost. I spoke to Canon a little while ago and they say I need to send them to a repair facility for an estimate, which I anticipated. The estimate will be completed within 48 hours of receipt and repairs should be completed within 10-14 days of approval of the estimate. So now I need to ship the binoculars off to NJ.