15 April 2005

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1825-2000
Atmospheric Conditions
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie Tacahashi 102 - Peter Orion SkyView Pro 6LT EQ Reflector - Derrick
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee Derrick Kevin (Meetup)

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Ari
Category	Solar
Time	15Apr05; 1825 EDT
Comments	Three sunspots were visible. At the bottom of the sun's disk moving toward the leading limb was 750(?) which was tiny and not immediately visible. 752 was the most prominent feature a little above the meridian and about on the equator. Below the equator and trailing 754 by a little bit was 754 which was again a small spot but not as small as 750. There was a possible penumbra around 750 and 752 As I watched a jet flew across the face of the disk and was visible in sharp silhoette as was its contrail. This was very interesting to observe as the contrail showed vortexes and dissipated. Boiling was bad when the sin got down near the roof of the Bearsford. I could tell when there were gusts of wind as the heat from a smoke stack would blow across the sun and the boiling would be horrendous for the duration of the gust. The ecliptic has moved to the north as the sun is going behind the towers of the Bearsford before it drops below the roofline as it was the day we observed the 1 day crescent moon a week ago.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Gem
Category	Lunar
Time	15Apr05; 1852 EDT
Comments	Something was catching light strongly in the inside wall of Mare Crisium, probably Yerkes. Rays eminating from Jenssen and through Mare Serenitatis were visible. Rima Aridaneus looks like a white stripe above two craters. There is a wide white diagonal stripe on upper Mare Serenitatis that is broken in the middle. The area wetween Mare Crissium and Mare Tranquilitatis looks like a high mesa. It is easier to ID things in the norht where there are not craters on top of craters and the marea tend to seperate things. It looks like libration is showing the lower right quadrant now. The following features were identified: crater Feature Type Atlas crater Hercules crater Laccus Somnorum sea Mare Serenitatis mare Messaia crater Menelaus crater Plinius crater Mare Vaporum mare Rima Ariadaeus Boscovich Lamont crater Ritter crater Sabine crater Maskelyne crater Delambre crater Theophilus crater Cyrillus crater Catharina crater Stofler crater Maurolycus crater Hommel crater Vlacq crater Rosenberger crater Mare Australe mare

Target	Iridium 23
Constellation	Leo
Category	Satellite
Time	15Apr05, 1851 EDT
Comments	CalSky predicted this event but I did not observe it. I was looking in the right area at the right time and after acording to my Palm clock. The Palm clock may be running a couple of minutes slow now for some reason.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2100-2300 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was comfortable with good seeing and transparency and no clouds.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Tacahashi 102 - Peter Orion SkyView Pro 6LT EQ Reflector - Derrick
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee Derrick Kevin (Meetup)

Target	Iridium 921tum
Constellation
Category	Satellites
Time	15Apr05, 2051 EDT
Comments	This is a tumbling Iridium satellite that has a long period flash. I planned to leave the Meetup meeting long enough to observe it but when I checked the data at the meeting I found that it is only a Mag 9.x object which would be around the limits of my binoculars and hard to spot unless I knew exactly where to look and got lucky to see a flash when it was in my field of view.

My digital recorder kicked off while I was observing so I lost some of the notes from the session after the Meetup meeting.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Leo
Category	Lunar
Time	15Apr05; 2210 EDT
Comments	Observed through Peter's Scope. There are some long lines paralleling the wall of Serenititis that look like slumping. The area of Nectaris that we observed the other night looks much flatter tonight.

Target	Sirius
Constellation	CMa
Category	Stars
Time	15Apr05; 2215 EDT
Comments	Canis Major is setting and Sirius is flashing red, blue and green through the atmosphere.

Target	Castor
Constellation	Gem
Category	Double Stars
Time	15Apr05; 2220 EDT
Comments	Observed in Peter's scope. At low power I could tell that it was a double but the stars overlapped creating a figure 8 of light with a wide waist. At high power I was able to split it.

Target	Cor Caroli
Constellation	CVn
Category	Double Stars
Time	15Apr05; 2228 EDT
Comments	Seen in Peter's Scope a wide double but I was not able to see it in the hand held binoculars. They are unequal in brightness but I did not see a difference in color.

This is a delayed report of an experiment we performed a few days ago. There is a technique for increasing the focal length of optical instruments be redcing the aperture. I have searched the web for it and only found references to doing it with Newtonian reflectors but Ben and Peter say it will work with any optics. Ben suggested setting the binoculars up on a building and reducing the aperture to see if the building gets bigger but I have never gotten around to doing it. I had my field occulting disks with me so gave it a try. I looked at one of the CPS buildings that nearly filled the field of view in height. Then I held the occulters that reduce the aperture by ~25% in front of the binocular objectives and the image fot a little bit dimmer but the building did not get any bigger. Next I tried it with the ~50% reducer and the image got noticeable darker but no bigger. The technique does not work with binoculars. Maybe the reducer needs to be behind the objective for it to work. Reducing the aperture to 50% does make for more comfortable viewing of the sun and i suspect it will be good for the moon too.