22 March 2005

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2115-2145 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Clear Sky Clock said clouds would fill in as the night progressed and that they did. As I walked east in the mid 50s I could see Jupiter rising in the SE. When I got to Lexington Ave I could see a few stars to the south so decided to stop off at TotL on the way home and see if anyone was there. I had been on jury duty today so was neither equipped nor dressed for observing but as it turns out that wasn't a problem. When I arrived at the park clouds were starting to stream in from the west and seeing was poor. During the half hour that I remained the transparency decreased and the cloud cover increased. The temperature was mile and there wasn't any perceptible wind.
Instruments	Naked-eye Observing
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Bright Stars
Constellation
Category	Stars
Time	22Mar05; 2115 EST
Comments	I had debated taking at least my binoculars to jury duty today but the forecast was for poor transparency and building clouds so I didn't bother. When I arrived in the park all that could be seen naked eye were the brightest stars and even some of them were extinguished as I observed. Ursa Minor Polaris was out there all by itself and easy to find although a little subdued. Kochab was visible but not all that much brighter than the surrounding sky. Pherkad was only observed because I knew it should be there and about where to look for it. Ursa Major All of the stars of the Big Dipper were observed but Megrez was difficult to find. Alcor was not seen. Bootes The only star seen in Bootes was Arcturus. Mercury Mercury appeared in the sky all by itself although it was in the center of the constellation Virgo. Leo The 92% illuminated moon was in Leo's breast. It was still possible to see nearby 1st and 2nd magnitude stars. Regulus was only 3.5º from the center of the nearly full moon but could be easily seen in its glow. Algieba, a magnitude dimmer, was also visible being 5.1º distant from the moon. Denebola was seen briefly Gemini Gemini was easily located high overhead by the characteristic alignment of Castor Pollux and Saturn which were shining brightly. Alhena was also observed. Hydra I located Alphard through inference by forming a right triangle with it, Regulus and Procyon. Canis Minor Procyon was verified by the near right triangle it forms with Castor and Regulus Canis Major Spica was the only star observed in Canis Major. (There are only two major stars anyway.) Orion Orion was a difficult target tonight. It was much dimmer than usual being lower in the SW where the atmosphere was the thickest. Betelgeuse was visible most of the time but I had to keep going back to Planetarium to check the spatial relationship to Saturn and other stars to verify what I was looking at. Bellatrix was seen initially but then disappeared and was not recovered. Of the belt stars only Alnitak and Alnilam were observed and only for a brief period of time Rigel was initially located, with difficulty, but even this mag. 0.1 star was quickly extinguished. Taurus Aldeberan was fairly easy to see but not that easy to identify with nothing much around it. Alnath was higher than Aldeberan so in clearer sky, and combined with Auriga so it was easily confirmed. Pleiades There was some faint light off to the north of Aldeberan which I took to be the combined light of the Seven Sisters. Auriga Capella was very bright and easily seen. Menkalinan was also bright and easy to identify. The only other star seen in the constellation was Alnath, which is actually part of Taurus although it forms one of the corners of the stick figure in the maps of Auriga.