11 April 2005

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2045-0100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Transparency and seeing was not so great tonight. There was a lot of haze and the sky was much brighter than usual. Clear Sky Clock had been showing dark blue for cloud cover all the way through Tuesday up until I went to dinner but when I returned they were showing light blue for 2-3 hours beginning at 2200 tonight. The IR satellite loop was not showing any cloud in the area or headed this way. I guess it was around 2300 I noticed a small cloud that appeared to be over the south end of The Great Lawn but was probably much farther south. As we watched it changed shape and another formed then the first dissipated then a third formed and ultimately they all dissipated. It may have been the result of some major office building starting up or shutting down a HVAC unit. It wasn't that much colder tonight than last night but it felt worse. There was a raw wind coming out of the north that gusted and blew the telescope around some. Seeing was not great as a result.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Teleport 10" Dobsonian Refractor - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target	Moon and the Pleiades
Constellation	Tau
Category	Lunar
Time	11Apr05; 2045 EDT
Comments	I had placed a note on my calendar for today but hadn't set an alarm and never looked at the calendar so forgot that the crescent Moon was going to be near the Pleiades tonight. On my way downtown on the subway I started up Planetarium to see if the Moon would still be visible when I arrived as it had looked nice in the west when I was heading home from dinner. It was then that I noticed where it would be. On arriving at the park I quickly set up to catch a glimpse of it before it fell behind the trees. The upturned horns were holding a disk of Moon lit by earthshine. Features could be clearly seen across the entire surface of the Moon. The Pleiades were about a degree to the right of the Moon and could be easily seen. This is the optimum configuration for observing this event as there is enough Moon there to make it clearly visible but not enough that you can't see the stars, even with the naked eye. I was able to count five of the sisters naked-eye. The Moon was 3 days 4 hours 12 minutes old and 11.1% illuminated at the time. Peter arrived just as they were going behind the trees and enjoyed the view. We spent a little time assessing focus and both felt that the focus point of my binoculars for the Pleiades was a little different from that for the Moon. So I am wondering how different it would be for a satellite passing in front of the Moon or even worse, the Sun. The terminator was going through Mare Crissium, Mare Fecunditatis and Cleomedes. The ctaters Furnerius, Petavius, Vendelinus and Langrenus were on the morning side of the terminator following nearly the same arc. There was a crater wall just left of center in the floor of Mare Crissium, probably Picard, that was strongly reflecting light.

Target	02 Pallas
Constellation	Com
Category
Time	11Apr05; 2153 EDT
Comments	In a triangle of faintish stars closest to the base. Peter said it had moved considerably from where we saw it last night.

Target	M61, NGC4303
Constellation	Vir
Category
Time	11Apr05; 2207 EDT
Comments	Not seen.

Target	M50, NGC2323
Constellation	Mon
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	11Apr05; 2239 EDT
Comments	Not seen.

Target	M47, NGC2422
Constellation	Pup
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	11Apr05; 2244 EDT
Comments	Two bright stars between the landmark stars and some dimmer stars around them mostly to the right. This is what Peter and Ben call the Scotty Dog.

Target	M46, NGC2437
Constellation	Pup
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	11Apr05; 2249 EDT
Comments	Not seen. Peter says he has never seen it in the Tac 102. He didn't see it until he got the Teleport.

Target	M60, NGC4649
Constellation	Vir
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	11Apr05; 2309 EDT
Comments	A faint ball of fuzz seen in Peter's scope. It will not be a binocular object for me, at least not from NYC.

Target	Clouds
Constellation
Category	Atmospheric Phenomena
Time	11Apr05; 2330 EDT
Comments	One small, low cloud appeared to be moving into the park from the SE corner. Two more clouds formed and disappeared as we watched in the period of a minute or two.

Target	M87, NGC4486
Constellation	Vir
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	11Apr05; 2330 EDT
Comments	I had a lot of trouble seeing this in the scope. It was a merely an area of soft focus for me.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planets
Time	11Apr05; 0100 EDT
Comments	As we were packing up Peter decided to take one last look at Jupiter before collapsing his scope. He thought he might have seen a shadow transit and asked me if I saw anything. I reported seeing an intermittent gray spot on the NEB near the meridian. He said that was not what he was seeing and pointed me to the NTZ near the western limb where I sound a definite gray circle. I also got a good look at my gray spot near the meridian which was on the lower edge of the NEB bulging into the EX. Peter took another look and confirmed seeing what I described. [Per Calsky.com: 22:01.7 Ganymede transit begins 22:42.2 Ganymede shadow transit begins 23:10.9 Ganymede inferior conjunction 00:20.1 Ganymede transit ends 01:18.7 Ganymede shadow transit ends This doesn't give any hint as to what I might have been seeing on the meridian but it definitely wasn't a shadow. Email from Peter: Yep, checked software and what we saw was the Ganymede shadow egress at 01:12 - 01:15. Also, the GRS was there on the upper belt (in fov) on the Jupiter's eastern limb. Don't what that gray feature was just west of meridian, probably a festoon from the belt. The shadow was unmistakable.]