20 December 2004

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2100-2400 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	COLD! This has been our coldest night this year and I hope the coldest we do. I didn't do a whole lot of observing through anyone's optics and even less documentation. The temperature was down in the single digits all night, 6F when we quit. The wind was calm most of the time so wind chill wasn't much of a problem but I did clock a gust at to 11 MPH and there was one stronger. The sky was a little mirky and there were a few wisps of cloud that passed through.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben TeleVue Ranger - Peter Tacahashi 22x60 binoculars - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac

Target	C/2004 Q2 (Machholz)
Constellation	Eri
Category	Comet
Time	20Dec04; 2119 EST
Comments	It looked like a big fuzzy ball. Tonight it was located a little to the left of the 39 Eri double and just below a dim star that is not in Planetarium so is less than Mag 6.5. Another Machholz story.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Psc
Category	Lunar
Time	20Dec04; 2145 EST
Comments	We compared the views of the moon in the three pairs of binoculars. It filled greater than half of the field in Peters 22x Tacahashis. By comparison, in Ben's 7x Fujinons it looked cute. In his field of view there was a brightt star to the lower left of the Moon, probably Mira, ο Cet, which I had to move my eye out to the right to see well in my binoculars. Out on the other side of the moon a few of the stars of And and the Great Square were visible naked-eye.

Target	Meteor
Constellation	Col ?
Category	Meteors
Time	20Dec04; ~2345 EST
Comments	Low over the trees in the SE. It moved quickly through a horizontal arc of 5-10 degrees in the neighborhood of Col. It appeared to me to have started out as white, assumed a red aspect in the middle of its track, and returned to white. Both Ben and Peter reported it as being yellow. The closest radiant that might be active right now is in Com, the Coma Berinecids, active 12Dec-23Jan, peaked yesterday with a ZHR of 5. It is 113 degrees distant and at roughly the same altitude.]

Target	M41, NGC2287
Constellation	CMa
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	20Dec04; ~2345
Comments	M41 is an open cluster in the heart of the Great Dog. Seen in Ben's binoculars it was a small cluster of faint stars in a milky background. In Peter's binoculars they probably occupied about 1/4 of the field of view.