18 March 2005

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1815-1915 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	The temperature was mild and the winds light but there was a lot of haze on the horizon out to the west.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Mercury
Constellation	Psc
Category	Planets
Time	18Mar05; 1625 EST
Comments	I stopped off in the park about sunset to get another sighting of Mercury before it disappears from the evening sky. I located it by sweeping the sky south of the San Remo. If I hadn't found it in the binoculars I never would have seen it. It was still bright but appeared smaller than before and being in the white haze would have been easy to miss if you didn't know where it was. Tomorrow is supposed to be the last night that it will be visible and the weather is supposed to be moving toward snow and rain so it probably won't be seen then making tonight the last sighting. I packed up at 1915 EST and headed over to the NYC Astronomy Meetup meeting.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2130-0100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	After the NYC Meetup meeting Jerry and I stopped off in the park. Conditions were appreciably worse then when I was there earlier in the evening. The sky had a markedly gray appearance. The wind was light and the temperature had only fallen to 34º by the time we left, but it was a little chilly. I could have used another layer of clothes.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben 10" Teleport - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac Ken (cyclist) Jerry Esposito

Target	Moon
Constellation	Gem
Category	Lunar
Time
Comments	We looked at Rupes Recta, the Straight Wall, on the floor of Mare Nubium. It lies between the craters Burt and Thebit (which has a smaller, well formed crater in its wall, Thebit A). The wall is not totally straight but has a slight arc to it like a saber. At the southern end of it there is a short tog-legged section. The Straight Wall is a fault 110 KM in length. To me it appeared as a mole burrow on the flat surface surrounding it. It is supposed to be visible in binoculars. Ben was seeing the dark limb of the moon against the black sky around it and a star that it would eventually occult. I wasn't able to detect the limb although I did see some faint stars in the field of view.

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time
Comments	The rings looked funny where they went behind the planet. There was nice shadow separation between the planet and the rings on the right side. The rings appeared to be behind the planet at the top of the image in Peter's scope so we are looking at them from below. I could make out a stripe on the surface of the planet around the equator.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation
Category	Planets
Time
Comments	The North and South Equatorial Bands were evident as a faint rust color stripe. On either side of them the planet looked fairly white. Just south of the SEB was another very thin stripe that did not cross the whole disk.