3 December 2004

Observing Location	Parkchester South Condominium Oval, The Bronx, NY
Atmospheric Conditions	It has been beautifully clear all morning but the weather forecasts called for it to get cloudy in the afternoon then clear off again tonight. Sure enough, when I was ready to go out to observe the sun the clouds started to pass in front of it coming in from the west. There were periods of cloud then periods of no cloud, about 50:50. The air feels dry and it is cool.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader film solar filter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sun
Constellation
Category	Solar
Time	3Dec04; 1130 EST
Comments	NASA SOHO/MDI Sunsopt 708 is large and looks mostly round but possibly with a ragged edge around the upper half. The sunspot complex 706/707 I would have expected to have had one number. It is composed of two larger sunspots with a smaller one equidistant between them. There appeared to be a slight darkening, a blush, on the limbward side of the complex and more to the bottom near 707. There was an area of lighter color, no granularity, looking like a river extending from near 707 diagonally down toward the limb. The sun is currently in Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. But Oph is not one of the zodiac signs even though it lies on the ecliptic. This is because the zodiac was created by the Babylonians over 2000 years ago and Oph was only carved out of the heavenly sphere in 1930. More information on Ophiuchus and the zodiac.

I paid particular attention to the chromatic aberration in my binoculars today. It is more visible when I am viewing big, bright objects and I am not going to view anything bigger or brighter than the sun. There was a slight blue-green tinge to the bottom limb of the sun and a slight pink tinge to the top limb. A casual observer might overlook them. I used the same eye to look through each eyepiece individually and could not detect any difference between them.

Observing Location	Rutherford Observatory, Columbia University, New York, NY
Atmospheric Conditions	It wasn't as clear as I had anticipated from the weather forecasts and at 150' above ground level, which is on a hill, it was a lot windier than forecast. It was really nippy up there. The horizon to the south is unusable due to the domes being in the way and all the lights from midtown. To the NW it looked good, but there were no stars there. When Orion became visible to the east there was so much schmutz that I wasn't able to see the sword without the binoculars and there was no way I was going to see M42/M43.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie 14" SCT & 8" SCT - Columbia
Observing Party	Public observing session at the Columbia University Observatory

I have come to the conclusion that anyone who earns an astronomy degree from Columbia University must really know their astronomy. It seems that less and less of their equipment works each time you go. None of their clock drives work so the scopes have to be recentered between every viewer at high magnification. Tonight we had to work on the roof because none of the scopes in the domes were functioning. That means you can't look at anything to the east or south because of building structures and furniture. The only thing they were showing in the 14" was the Andromeda Galaxy which was nearly at zenith and they can't put an erector on that scope so you have to climb under it to look up the axis of the tube. These must be dedicated people.

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations	Star Magnitude Al Anz, ε Aur 3.01 Hoedus II, η Aur 3.19 Achird, η Cas 3.46 Gorgonea Tertia, ρ Per 3.41 M45 5-6 stars 77 θ1 Tau 3.86 78 θ1 Tau 3.42 Hyadum I, γ Tau 3.67

Target	M57, Ring Nebula
Constellation
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	3Dec04; 1920 EST
Comments	Observed in an 8" SCT. I could not get it to take direct but was able to see it with averted vision. It may have been denser at the edges but appeared to be pretty much solid.

Target	M31, Andromeda Galaxy, and/or M32
Constellation	And
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	3Dec04; 1925 EST
Comments	I found M31 easily in my binoculars while the grad student was climbing under the 14" scope like a monkey trying to find the galaxy. It was difficult for me to get beneath the 14" scope and get my head pointed directly up under the eyepiece without knocking the scope off the target. But I did see a big fuzzy ball off to the side in the scope. Later when they had M32 in the scope with M31 I was only able to see M31. I am not actually certain that I wasn't seeing M32 both times, or M31 both times, as it looked to be in the same place in the scope and about the same size - about the size of a quarter. But I do know that I saw the Andromeda Galaxy in my binoculars.

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	Conditions in the park appeared better than from the roof of Columbia but being at ground level I was looking up more than out so seeing through less atmosphere. Conditions improved until around 2230-2300 EST when some clouds started to drift in from the west. By midnight it didn't look like it was worth trying to wait them out with curfew fast approaching. The temperature dipped below freezing by midnight and there were some occasional strong gusts of wind. It was cold enough that the battery in my PDA, which had been freshly charged before I left home, died before 2300 hrs.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben 10" Teleport - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations

Star Magnitude Pherkad, γ UMi 3.07 Kochab, β UMi 2.10 υ Aur 4.76 τ Aur 4.54 ν Aur 3.99 77 θ1 Tau/78 θ2 Tau 3.86/3.42 Hyadum I, γ Tau 3.67 Hyadum II, δ Tau 3.78 64 δ2 Tau 4.82 68 δ3 Tau 4.31 Ain, ε Tau 3.55 18 ν Gem 4.14 1 Gem 4.18 1 π3 Ori 3.21 3 π4 Ori 3.71 8 π 5 Ori 3.74 37 φ1 Ori 4.43 40 φ2 Ori 4.11 Meissa, λ Ori 3.56 31 Ori 4.73 28 η Ori 3.38 20 τ Ori 3.62 29 Ori 4.16 Sword of Orion 4.61 - 2.78 7 ν CMa 3.97 14 θ CMa 4.09

Target	M39, NGC7092
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	3Dec04; 2111 EST
Comments	Seen in Peter's scope. It is an open cluster. I didn't make any notes about it.

Target	Double Cluster, h and χ Per
Constellation	Per
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	3Dec04; 2119 EST
Comments	The two clusters nearly filled the field of view of Peter's scope at low power. The smaller cluster on the right in the eyepiece was more tightly compacted. The left cluster had many faint stars in its core. [This is one of the few instances where letter names have been applied to features rather than to individual stars. h was used because all the Greek characters had already been used in Perseus.]

Target	The Engagement Ring
Constellation	UMi
Category	Asterisms
Time	3Dec04; 2131 EST
Comments	I have finally located the Engagement Ring. It is at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, like a ring or loop of string through the end of the handle by which the dipper is hung in the sky. Polaris is the diamond on the edge of the ring. The ring forms a large circle that, if memory serves, is probably 2-3 degrees in diameter, it seemed to fill a good bit of the field of view in my binoculars. I think the stars on the left side of the ring are brighter than those on the right. There is a whole in the ring just above the most prominent of the ring stars.

Target	M42/M43
Constellation	Ori
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	3Dec04; 2152 EST
Comments	In my binoculars M42/M43 appeared more prominent tonight than at any other time this season. It appeared to wash up and down to the distant pairs of stars above and below the Trapezium. The depended wash was the more prominent. Its aspect changed over time at some times appearing yellow to lime green. Around about 2330 EST we observed it in Peter's scope. It had the molar appearance again with a very squared off left and top (eyepiece view) side. I thought I saw a couple of "streamers" extending off to the left of the molar's crown. The molars roots extended down around the void around the Trapezium creating the Fish Mouth. [The nebula, at 66x60 minutes of arc, is 4x the size of the full moon or 30 light years in diameter. It is the brightest deep space object and was first documented in 1610. The Trapezium is one of the youngest star clusters known and is still an active star forming region.] More information on M42.

Target	NGC1981
Constellation	Ori
Category	Deep Space Object
Time	3Dec04; 2158 EST
Comments	This open cluster at the upper end of the Sword of Orion appears as two fairly parallel arcs of three stars each. There are other dimmer stars in the neighborhood as well.

Target	Lepus, The Hare
Constellation	Lep
Category	Constellation
Time	3Dec04; 2220 EST
Comments	This is my first night in Lepus. I was able to locate all of the primary stars of the shape with the exception of the rabbit's tail.

Target	Arneb, α Lep
Constellation	Lep
Category
Time	3Dec04; 2220 EST
Comments	I made a two word Graffiti note in my PDA about this star but there are so many wrong letters in the note I have no idea what I was trying to say. It is a type F star in the upper neck of the hare but I don't see anything remarkable about it in Planetarium that would prompt me to study it closely enough to have made a note about it.

Target	Meteor
Constellation	Lep
Category	Meteor
Time	3Dec04; 2220 EST
Comments	While studying Lepus a meteor streaked through the constellation from out of the west. It appeared thick and moderately fast and left a short trail. I would characterize it as light butter yellow. There is no active radiant noted in Planetarium so it must have been a sporadic.

Target	γ Leporis, Algieba
Constellation	Lep
Category	Double Star
Time	3Dec04; 2228 EST
Comments	This is a gold/orange pair at the bottom of Lep which is easily split (95"). There is good magnitude contrast between the two stars (2.6/3.8). I located them during a misguided attempt to locate M4, a planetary, at only 8 degrees above the horizon.

Target	Canis Major, The Great Dog
Constellation	CMa
Category	Constellation
Time	3Dec04; 2300 EST
Comments	After leaving Lep I moved over to CMa as it rose above the trees and did some naked eye observing there. It was my first time actually looking at this constellation also. It was hard to pick out the dog's head.

Target	NGC2244
Constellation	Mon
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	3Dec04; 2352 EST
Comments	This open cluster appears as a parallelogram maybe 30' in length.

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	4Dec04; 0010 EST
Comments	In Peter's scope several moons could be seen surrounding Saturn. Remembering that his view is east-west and north-south reversed, we were looking up under the rings on the side of Saturn facing us. The Cassini division was evident as was a band of color on the face of the planet.