19 February 2005

Observing Location	Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, New York, NY
Observational Period	1600-1615 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	I was in Central park this afternoon looking at The Gates with most of the rest of the world's population and had the Bruntons with me for solar observing. The temperature was near freezing. There were only a few altus type clouds and no haze was perceived. Due to the time of day it was hard finding a place where there were no tree branches between me and the sun.
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binoculars with #14 welder's gold glass - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Aqr
Category	Solar
Time	19Feb05; 1600
Comments	Sunspot 735 appears to me to have shrunk since I saw it rotating onto the disk last week. It has rotated to near the leading limb where foreshortening may be affecting its apparent size. SpaceWeather.com is reporting that filaments were visible but if they were there while I was observing they were beyond the resolving power of my 8x binoculars.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2345-0100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Tonight was a sea chanty sing night so I was tied up until 2300 hrs. I arrived at TotL just as Ben and Peter were breaking down so spent all of my time making naked-eye limiting magnitude assessments down to the south. The sky was not as black tonight as it was last night and fewer stars were in evidence. The temperature was 30 with the winds 6-10 MPH but it felt much colder than that at times. NYPD drove through around 2250 hrs and very politely reminded us that the curfew is at 0200 hrs.
Instruments	Naked-eye observing
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac Ken (cyclist)

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations

Star Magnitude Faintest Star Seen 4.03 Betelgeuse α Ori 0.52 Bellatrix γ Ori 1.66 Alnitak ζ Ori 2.07 Alnilam ε Ori 1.72 Mintaka δ Ori 2.25 Rigel β Ori 0.14 Saiph κ Ori 2.08 Castor α Gem 1.60 Pollux &beta Gem 1.16 κ Gem 3.59 Tejat Posterior μ Gem 2.90 Propus η Gem 3.30 Capella α Aur 0.10 δ Aur 3.74 Menkalinan β Aur 1.90 θ Aur 2.64 Alnath β Tau 1.67 Hassaleh ι Aur 2.71 Al Naz ε Aur 3.01 Hoedus II η Aur; 3.19 Haedi ζ Aur 3.77 Polaris α UMi 2.00 Kochab β UMi 2.10 Pherkad γ UMi 3.07 Alcor 4.03 Cor Caroli α CVn 2.92 Arcturus α Boo 0.00 &delta Boo 3.49 Nekkar β Boo 3.52

Target	Moon
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	19Feb04; 2400 EST
Comments	The gibbous moon was between the bodies of the Gemini twins tonight making a crushed box with Saturn to its left and Castor and Pollux above.