1 May 2005

Observing Location	Parkchester South Condominium Oval, The Bronx, NY
Observational Period	1645-1630 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	When I got to the oval there was about 25% cloud cover and by the time I left it had increased to greater than 75%. Clear Sky Clock said observing would be good tonight but now I am not so sure.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Ari
Category	Solar
Time	The sunspots were lined up from near the center of the sun down toward 5:00. This seems a little extreme for that time of day considering it is Daylight Saving Time so was really only around 1500 hrs solar time. Sunspot 765 is huge (about 5x the size of earth according to SpaceWeather.com) and very complex. It has a penumbra that has a hole in it. It is preceded to the limb by sunspot 757 which is two small spots but still big enough to be easily seen in my binoculars.
Comments	NASA SOHO MIDI image oriented as I saw the sun. Sketch by Gandini Elena of Italy posted to SpaceWeather.com.

---

I bought my first telescope this afternoon. Or parts thereof anyway. It is a Coulter CT-100. That was called a coffee can telescope because the primary and secondary were housed in what looked like half of a #5 can. The primary is 4.5". All I am getting is the two ends of the scope and a bar from which to make the rail they sit on. The scope had no tube but rather a piece of cloth that connected the primary and secondary cages. I am not certain it even has the helical focuser. If there is enough there for me to make the rail and add an eyepiece I will have an instrument with twice the light gathering power of my binoculars and should be able to use it at 100x magnification. It will be a nice first step from the binoculars, allowing me to see a little deeper but still giving me the wide field experience. I will have to find a place to have the dovetail cut into the aluminum bar for the rail and buy an eyepiece before I can do anything with it.

A review of the CT-100.

---

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2045-2245 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	The sky was mostly clear but not as black as it should have been. Occasionally a patch of fair weather cumulus clouds would drift through. The temperature dropped to around 50º which felt kind of nippy standing there doing nothing with occasional gusts of wind.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I had a demo clock running on my palm and it kept starting the palm up and flashing a nag screen that turned off auto power off and killed my battery and I didn't have my Power To Go charger with me so was lost beyond seeing constellations and the bright stars I know.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planets
Time	1May05; 2045 EDT
Comments	Jupiter looked flattened up around 2:00, like it was showing phase. I am not aware that the superior planets show phase, but don't know that they don't. It seems like anything should as it approached quadrature. I could see three moons lined up on the trailing edge of the planet. Europa was inside of Io and too close to Jupiter to be seen. Image from AstroTools

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	1May05; 2100 EST
Comments	Saturn looked cigar shaped oriented \ with a bulge below the rings. The rings were longer that depicted in my field drawing and the bulge not as pronounced. There was one moon visible a short distance off the trailing edge of the rings that isn't showing up in the scan of the field drawing.

Target	M35, NGC2168
Constellation	Gem
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	1May05; 2110 EDT
Comments	There were more stars showing in M35 tonight and it is closer to 5 Gem than I had previously reported. There were three prominent stars with several others fading in and out and a sprinkling of dust around them all. Image from Cartes du Ciel

Target	M13, Hercules Cluster, NGC6205
Constellation	Her
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	1May05; 2200 EDT
Comments	On several occasions when I have been looking for M13 I have found Kornephoros, β Her (Mag 2.83), and mistaken it for ζ Her (Mag 2.79). I thought I was seeing ζ Her and η Her (Mag 3.55). The lines are similar and the left star of each pair is the dimmer, but ζ and η are closer together. The are part of the Keystone asterism but it is low enough on the horizon that the lower stars, which are Mag 3.9 and Mag 3.1 can't be seen in the haze. I have always been able to locate M13 easily by extending the line from β through ζ and the cluster appears before reaching η. I scanned around a bit hoping to chance on M92 but had no idea where to look for it without Planetarium. I have detailed maps of the area but they are too detailed to do the star hop from M13.

Target	M57, Ring Nebula, NGC6720
Constellation	Lyr
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	1May05; 2220 EDT
Comments	Not seen. Lyra was up so I took a look for M57 since I remembered there was something in the center of the bottom of the stick figure. The Deep Sky Observer's Guide describes M57: With an angular diameter of 70", M57 is just too small to be distinguishable from the stellar background in binoculars: a small telescope magnifying 20 times is perhaps the minimum requirement to show the Ring Nebula's non-stellar oval outline. It sounds like a candidate target for the Coulter when it becomes operational.