19 April 2005

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2130-0015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	This is another day when I got burned by Clear Sky Clock. They even sent me email this afternoon saying observing would be good tonight but it just aint so. There was haze blocking out most of the stars below 40º. The temperature was in the 70s and I didn't even have to put a sweater on under my light jacket. There have been gusts of warm air but no noticeable sustained wind. I would say seeing was good for binoculars and seeing was fair. Around 2330 EDT it got real crisp from around the moon up to the zenith but this is neck breaking territory for binoculars.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Moon
Constellation	Leo
Category	Lunar
Time	19Apr05; 2135 EDT
Comments	The Moon is in Leo just below a line between Denebola and Regulus. Atmospheric boiling was evident when observing the Moon. The terminator is passing just east of Sinus Iridum and passes down through the eastern portion of Mare Imbrium and the crater Delisle. Then just east of craters Gassendi and through Mare Humorum and the crater Doppilmayer then I loose it in the jumble of features near the southern limb. The strong ray that passes north through Mare Serenitatis from crater Menelaus is evident but I do not see the southward portion of it that goes down near Tycho. Another strong ray leaves Tycho and goes past crater Nicollet. There is a hint of ray structure around Erastosyhenes. The moon looks very flat tonight except in the far south and right along the terminator. There is a hint a mare on the SW limb where Mare Australe was seen a few days ago but there is too much blue chromatic aberration there to see the limb well. It looks like there is a central peak filling Gassendi but there is no indication of one on either of my maps. Other features seen: Feature Type Reinhold crater Murchison crater

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planets
Time	19Apr05; 2147 EDT
Comments	One moon off the trailing limb and three out in front of the planet. [ E  O I   G     C ]

Target	M101, Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC5457
Constellation	UMa
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	19Apr05; 2157 EDT
Comments	Not Seen. I hopped to the neighborhood by continuing the line from Alioth through Mizar through four fairly equally spaced, equally bright stars in the Mag 5.7 range. 86 UMa is in the center of the field of view and two bright stars are on the 1:00 edge of the field. M101 should be down about .5-.75º from the 7:00 edge of the field.

Target	M3, NGC5272
Constellation	CVn
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	19Apr05; 2210 EDT
Comments	I was hopping up to M3 off of ρ Boo when a passer by stopped and wanted to see something. After I showed them Jupiter I didn't go back to M3 since it is a dim and complicated hop. I should have gone back and tried it again to get used to the hop.

Target	M35, NGC2158
Constellation	Gem
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	19Apr05; 2213 EDT
Comments	Not seen. I had to star hop here all the way from Castor. μ Gem and η Gem are both bright, orange stars. 1 Gem is a dimmer white star. Between η Gem and 1 Gem there are three stars, concentrated toward η Gem. Taking the star that is in the center of the line and extending a line out to the right to just above 1 Gem and M35 should be in that neighborhood. It is about half way between 1 Gem and 5 Gem but is going behind the trees now.

Target	Propus, η Gem, 7 Gem
Constellation	Gem
Category	Double Stars
Time	19Apr05; 2233 EDT
Comments	The primary is orange with a dimmer, white secondary to its 8:00.

Target	M104, Sombrero Galaxy, NGC4594
Constellation	Vir
Category	Deep Space Object
Time	19Apr05; 2252 EDT
Comments	Not seen. I tried hopping to it off of Algorab, &delta Crv, but got lost so ending up taking the longer hop from Spica instead. At 1:00 there are three stars on a diagonal in decreasing magnitude toward the center of the field. One bright star at 9:00.

Target	M57, Ring Nebula, NGC6720
Constellation	Lyr
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	19Apr05; 2300 EDT
Comments	Not seen. About half way between β Lyr and γ Lyr.

Tonight has been another night of searching and not finding. But at least I am getting the star hops down and finding the right neighborhoods.

The Moon is so bright it is casting a distinct shadow of me and my tripod on the ground.

At 2300 EDT the sprinkler heads for the baseball diamond infields went off for one minute. At midnight the heads for the grass went off and a few of them got the walk wet in the NE corner.