8 December 2004

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	It was kind of mirky. I was not seeing some of the fainter stars I do on good nights and the ones I was seeing were not solid. Clouds started coming in from the west a little after midnight when Ben and I were leaving.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Peter 10" Teleport - Ben
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations	Star Magnitude False Kids 3.99 - 4.76

Target	Mintaka, δ Ori
Constellation	Ori
Category	Double Stars
Time	8Dec04; 2157 EST
Comments	A tight double, for my binoculars anyway. A bright star with a much dimmer star at 11:30. Mag 1.9/2.1 blue/white Sep 0.53"

Target	Sigma Orionis
Constellation	Ori
Category	Double Stars
Time	8Dec04; 2211 EST
Comments	I could just make it out as a double star in the hand held binoculars but in Peter's scope it resolved as a quadruple star system at the end of the Sword. dim gray, bright white, and 2 dimmer whites Combined visual magnitude 3.7, companion stars are 7/7/10

Target	Struve 272
Constellation
Category
Time
Comments	The stars formed the sliver if a triangle. Seen in Peter's scope [Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (1793-1864) German astronomer who was an expert on double stars and one of the first astronomers to measure stellar parallax. In 1822 he published the first of many double-star catalogues, the identifying numbers of which are still used today. Struve's stars, however, are now often named in his honor (for example, Struve 2398), whereas the original catalogue prefix was the Greek letter sigma. I am not finding on online Struve catalog or a reference to this star.]

Target	η Ori
Constellation	Ori
Category	Double Stars
Time	8Dec04; 2219
Comments	A tight double. Both are very bright but the right appears slightly dimmer. Seen in Peter's scope.

Target	Struve 742
Constellation	Tau
Category	Double Stars
Time	8Dec04; 2300 EST
Comments	Easily split in Peter's scope at 140x. Fairly equal in magnitude.

Target	Alcor
Constellation	UMa
Category	Double Stars
Time	8Dec04, 2316
Comments	After looking for a while I was able to see Alcor sitting off to the side of Mizar. In the binoculars they were flashing all kinds of colors.

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	8Dec04; 2331 EST
Comments	In my binoculars it was the usual cigar shape. Through Peter's scope we were able to clearly see the A ring which appeared less bright than the B ring and had some texture. The Cassini division separated it from the B ring. The B ring was very white and featureless like a sheet of paper, much more dense. On the right side of the rings where they turned the bend I could see the C ring as a little area of granular gray kind of like the edge of the B ring in open shadow. The shadow was sharply defined on the rings on the left side of Saturn.

Target	M79
Constellation	Lep
Category	Deep Space Objects
Time	9Dec04, 0011 EST
Comments	A globular cluster in Lepus. It was easily seen in Peter's scope and took direct vision.

Target	Comet Machholz
Constellation	Eri
Category	Comets
Time	9Dec04
Comments	Ben found the comet in his binoculars where I observed it. It wasn't easy to see being a faint fuzzy on a fuzzy gray sky but I did see it. He said the view was better in my binoculars since they exhibit more contrast. More information.