28 December 2005

Observing Location	Parkchester-East 177th Street subway station platform on the #6 Line, The Bronx, NY
Observational Period	0645-0715 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	When I woke up at 0600 I could see a star [Vega] visible through the curtains in my east facing bedroom window so I figured it would be clear enough to see the planets. The temperature at the time was in the high 20s and the wind light. It was twilight when I arrived on the subway platform and the sky looked clear except low on the eastern horizon where there were already orange clouds showing. As it got closer to dawn it became apparent that there were cirrus clouds over most of the sky. In some patches there were wisps of cloud but the sky was becoming increasingly gray to white to the east. At one point I looked away from Jupiter and when I looked back a moment later it was gone behind a general haze and never reappeared.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	International Space Station
Constellation
Category	Satellites
Time	28Dec04; 0638
Comments	I forgot all about having seen the ISS until I received the pass predictions for the next few days. I was waiting for the traffic light to change to cross over to the subway and a bright ball of light same out from behind one of the Parkchester buildings and tracked across the sky in a southerly direction. I moved back against the buildings to get a view of it over the parked delivery trucks and it passed well above the subway station and was visible until it got far enough away to drop into the lights of the station. It appeared very big bright in the dark sky.

Target	The Five Planets
Constellation
Category	Planets
Time	0645
Comments	Object Constellation Alt Az Magnitude Saturn Gem 16 284 -0.3 Jupiter Vir 43 190 -1.9 Mars Lib 20 144 1.6 Venus Oph 12 133 -3.9 Mercury Oph 13 132 -0.2 Jupiter Jupiter was the first planet acquired at 0645. It was fairly high up and roughly straight ahead when standing on the platform looking to the south. There was one moon on the left side of the planet [Europa] and three to the right [Io, Ganymede, and Callisto]. The moons to the right were a little hard to resolve without the binoculars tripod mounted but the image stabilization helped a lot. Saturn Moving to the western end of the platform at 0649 I was able to see past the structure on at end of the southbound platform to Saturn and the moon. Saturn was below the moon and appeared beige in color. It was standing in its end with the rings steeply inclined. The moon was bright white above Saturn but it was obvious that a portion of it in the lower right quadrant was not visible. To the right of the moon Pollux, beta Gem, could be seen naked eye and then dimmer Castor, alpha Gem, was more difficult to pick out though farther from the glare of the moon to the right of Pollux Venus I thought I had found Mars next to one of the apartment buildings at 0652 as I moved east along the platform to the eastern end. My initial reaction was that it was very bright and with good reason since it now becomes apparent that I was seeing Venus. It was getting light enough that there weren't naked-eye field stars to help with location finding and at the time of first identification I was observing it through tree limbs. The compass is useless on the subway platform as the readings constantly change with fluctuations in the power in the rails. Venus, then, was a blazing ball of light even in the lightening pre-sunrise sky. By 0710 EST I was no longer able to locate it naked-eye but could still pick it up by sweeping the area with my binoculars. Mercury Although I looked at Venus a good bit, and Mercury was only 1.2 degrees away, I did not see it. Mercury is only slightly brighter than Saturn which wasn't really all that conspicuous even though it was in a darker sky, partly owing to the bright moon nearby. If I had properly identified Venus at the outset I might have found Mercury before the sky began to lighten too much. Mars Mars is only as bright as a bright naked-eye star so was not seen in the twilight Pluto was out there in Ser, to the left of Mercury and Venus, but at Mag 14.0 it is too dim for me to see it in my binoculars. If they forecast another clear morning I need to start observing earlier so I can have a darker sky and see some stars to help me find Mars and provide more contrast for Mercury as it rises. I should start just as Venus and Mercury are rising and by the time I have observed Saturn and Jupiter and found Mars they should be high enough to observe.