31 May 2005

Observing Location	Parkchester South Condominium, The Bronx, NY
Observational Period	1545-1615 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was clear this morning then we got a few passing clouds this afternoon. While I was observing I think I spent more time waiting for the building cumulus to move off the sun than I did actually looking at the sun. The temperature was around 77 with a light breeze so it was comfortable just sitting there on a park bench. But I was really warm by the time I got home from the library and dinner.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Tau
Category	Solar
Time	31May05; 1545 EDT
Comments	None of the spots have penumbras around them today. The more complex spots in the Southern Hemisphere are surrounded by a void in the granular structure of the photosphere 767 Group 767 is approaching the western limb of the Sun in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a complex of tow larger spots with smaller spots between them. There is no penumbra but a void is visible in the granular structure of the photosphere. 771 Group 771 appears to me as a single small spot, a pore a little ways off the western limb in the Northern Hemisphere. 770 Group 770 appears to me as another pore and is closer to the equator but in the Northern Hemisphere. It over half way from the limb toward the center of the Sun's disc. unnumbered A group of three small spots in rotating onto the face of the Sun from the eastern limb. They are south of the equator. As of yet they do not have a number listed on SpaceWeather.com. The SOHO imagery is only showing two close spots preceded by a good distance by a pore but I clearly say three spots in an arc and did not see the pore. I have either got bad position data for the north pole or have not drawn my diagram properly because my sunspots are not all in the right hemispheres. NASA SOHO MDI image, north up   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 2 2 22 Southern Hemisphere 2 6 26 Total 4 8 48 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number 76

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1945-0100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	There were dense clouds to the north and west when I arrived but they broke up around 2100 EDT and were not a problem after that. Transparency was not great but then I did see the fifth star of Corvus down to the SSW so it must not have been too bad. There was no wind and the temperature only dropped to 57 which wasn't too bad until 2355 EDT when the humidity skyrocketed. I wonder if sprinklers kicked off at that time somewhere where I could not hear them and injected additional moisture into the air. The infield sprinklers around TotL started up about five minutes later.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Venus
Constellation	Tau
Category	Planets
Time	31May05; 2000 EDT
Comments	Not Seen I scanned the western horizon about where I thought Venus should be but there was nothing there but clouds. I couldn't even tell if the Sun had set yet.

Target	Rainbow
Constellation
Category	Weather
Time	31May05; 1950 EDT
Comments	While scanning the western horizon for Venus I picked up a rainbow in the top of a cumulus cloud. It was being lit from behind.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planets
Time	31May05; 2023
Comments	Jupiter was the first object to appear. I was scanning the sky for it before sunset using my binoculars but was not able to locate it. At 2023 EDT I caught a glint of light high up to the south and when I put my binoculars on it I found that it was big and round rather than being the reflection from the underside of a high flying plane. It looked huge, like a white light shining through a perfectly round hole punched in a sheet of blue paper, and about the size of a capital "O" on my screen. No moons were visible at that time but at 2042 EDT I did see Europa on the leading edge and Io following and then Callisto far out and below the plane. Planetarium said Ganymede was transiting at the time. But my other programs indicate that Ganymede was near Io. Graphic from JavaScript AstroTools' Jupiter Tool. This image from Starry Night Starter does not show the plane of the planets in the observed orientation. This Starry Night Starter screen capture with the time advanced to 2200 EDT is more in line with what I observed. I can not explain the discrepancy since all programs were set for the correct coordinate and time references.

Target	Porrima
Constellation	Vir
Category	Star
Time	31May05; 2038 EDT
Comments	While observing Jupiter in the binoculars Porrima became evident but was not seen naked-eye until 2050 EDT.

Target	Spica
Constellation	Vir
Category	Stars
Time	31May05; 2050 EDT
Comments	Spica became visible naked-eye.

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	31May05; 2050 EDT
Comments	Saturn finally became visible naked-eye, followed by Pollux and lastly Castor which had been on the edge of the cloud shield. Saturn appeared very flat on its right edge and rounded on the left.

Target	Arcturus & Mufrid
Constellation	Bootes
Category	Stars
Time	31May05; 2058 EDT
Comments	Arcturus was seen naked eye followed a minute later by Mufrid.

Target	Deneb
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Stars
Time	31May05; 2103 EDT
Comments	Deneb was visible naked eye low over the trees to the north in heavy haze. In the binoculars it looked like an emergency light on a federal police car flashing blue and white. γ Cyg was visible in the binoculars but no other Cygnus stars.

Target	Vega
Constellation	Lyr
Category	Stars
Time	31May05; 2115 EDT
Comments	The clouds are starting to dissipate and Vega is now visible naked-eye.

Target	Big Dipper
Constellation	UMa
Category	Asterism
Time	31May05; 2115 EDT
Comments	All of the bright stars of the Big Dipper plus Alcor are visible.

Target	Little Bear
Constellation	UMi
Category	Costellation
Time	31May05; 2117 EDT
Comments	Polaris, Kochab and Pherkad are visible as usual and I think I am just seeing ζ UMi.

Target	Alphecca, &alpha CrB
Constellation	CrB
Category	Stars
Time	31May05; 2117 EDT
Comments	Visible naked-eye.

Target	Spot 4 Rocket
Constellation
Category	Satellite
Time	31May05; 2129
Comments	Not Seen

Target	Cosmos 1154 Rocket
Constellation	Boo
Category	Satellite
Time	31May05; 2130 EDT
Comments	This Mag. 3.8 satellite was seen flying north to south in the neighborhood of Bootes and was followed for about 40º.

Target	Iridium 16
Constellation	Her
Category	Satellite
Time	31May05; 2135 EDT
Comments	Not Seen I don't know how I missed a Mag. -8 flare. I was looking a little higher than I should have been (I calculated it to be between Bootes' club and the second loop of Draco) but a -8 should have caught my eye no matter where I was looking.

Target	Unknown Satellite
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Satellite
Time	31May05; 2145 EDT
Comments	I observed a satellite pass near η Cyg; There was no satellite listed in Heavens-Above.com for this time. Orbitron shows a satellite (SL-3 Rocket) low on the horizon to the NE tracking counterclockwise at that time. Graphic from Orbitron.

Target	χ Cyg
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Variable Stars
Time	31May05; 2050 EDT
Comments	This is a long period variable star that is supposed to be a good starter star for new variable star observers. I foud a formula for calculating the magnitude of a variable star by comparing it to the magnitude of tow nearby stars and wanted to give it a try. I wasn't able to find what the official comparison stars are (they should be in the same field of view, within .5 of a magnitude of the variable, one brighter and one dimmer, and of the same spectral type) so picked 17 Cyg as my bright star and Yale 7535 as my dim star. I used the magnitude values from Planetarium for the calculations in the field and recalculated it at home vased on the values from Cartes du Ciel (which really may not be any more accurate but the deeper star catalog makes you feel better). The recalculation resulted in a change in the estimate of 0.01 mag to the dimmer. I don't know how close to the real magnitude I came since I don't know where to find that information for a variable star at a point in time. Star Mag. Observation 17 Cyg 5.00 3 Faint difference observed at first sight. Yale 7535 6.18 5 Big difference observed at first sight. χ Cyg 5.44 A 3 V 5 B

Target	50 Vir
Constellation	Vir
Category	Star
Time	31May05; 2210 EDT
Comments	I tried calculating the magnitude of a star I know the magnitude of to see how close I come to the actual value using the formula. There is a "k" factor that relates to size of your optics and your observing experience that I have not included in my formula since I haven't found a site that says how to calculate it. For small optics and inexperienced observers it should be >1 but I don't know how much >. I calculated the brightness of 50 Vir at 6.06. Planetarium lists it at 5.96. Star Mag. Observation 49 Vir 5.21 3 Faint difference observed at first sight. Yale 4959 6.34 1 Faint difference after extended observation. χ Cyg 6.06 A 3 V 1 B

Target	Unknown Satellite
Constellation	CrB
Category	Satellite
Time	31May05; 2238 ECT
Comments	I was looking in CrB to see if I could find some stars to test the magnitude estimation on and a satellite flew through my field of view heading south. There is nothing listed in Heavens-Above.com for this timeframe and I don't see anything in that location on Orbitron.

Target	17 Lyr
Constellation	Lyr
Category	Star
Time	31May05; 2240 EDT
Comments	I tried comparing 17 Lyr with γ Lyr and Yale 7237 to estimate its brightness. I came up with 5.37 and the value given in Planetarium is 5.25. This is the second star that I have estimated as dimmer than its known value. Star Mag. Observation γ Lyr 4.95 2 Faint difference is easily evident. Yale 4959 5.58 1 Faint difference after extended observation. χ Cyg 5.37 A 2 V 1 B

Target	Leo
Constellation	Leo
Category	Constellation
Time	31May05; 2305
Comments	I saw Regulus and Algieba and a few brighter stars south of them and had no idea what I was looking at. It wasn't until I pulled them up in Planetarium that I was able to construct Leo out of them. I was not expecting Leo to be so far west and diving down on the eclyptic. Algieba appears to be a double star with 40 Leo with a big magnitude difference (2.5:1). The primary is yellow and the secondary blue.

Target	Coma Berineces Cluster
Constellation	Com
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	31May05; 2315 EDT
Comments	I could only find Denebola, Arcturus and Cor Caroli so ended up tracking up and slewing to the south to find this. The stars appeared bright and the cluster spilled over the edges of my 4.5º FOV. Graphic from Starry Nights Starter Edition

Target	Alberio
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Double Star
Time	31May05; 2320 EDT
Comments	A tight double. The primary us gold and the secondary turquoise.

Target	The Coathanger
Constellation	Vul
Category	Asterism
Time	31May05; 2330 EDT
Comments	Thw coathanger was nearly in the trees to the NE. There were no naked eye guide stars available that low in the haze so I found it by brute force slewing from Alberio.

Target	ω1 Sco & ω2 Sco
Constellation	Sco
Category	Double Star
Time	31May05; 2333 EDT
Comments	A very wide double in the left claw of Scorpius. The components are fairly equal although ω2 appears a little dimmer (3.98 vs 4.34 or 1.4:2). They both appear to be white.

Target	γ sco & υ Sco
Constellation	Sco
Category	Stars
Time	31May05; 2345 EDT
Comments	These are the two bright stars at the top of the tail of the scorpion (the Sting). They were in a notch in the top of one of the trees very low on the horizon. I saw an unlabeled cluster so dim stars to the N of the Sting in Planetarium and thought it must be something. It turns out to be M7. I tried to find it but couldn't even find the bright stars of the teapot of Sagittarius that low on the horizon.

Target	Cosmos 1
Constellation	CrB
Category	Satellite
Time	1Jun05; 0043 EDT
Comments	Not Seen I missed Mag.ag 1.4 satellite. I didn't see anything in motion heading from near the zenith in the west fo the horizon in the north.

I was approached by Dove and Chris who have just purchased a GoTo. They wanted me to point out some bright stars for them because they are trying to do a two-star alignment and don't know the heavens. I suggested they bring the scope by some time and someone would help them if we are there.

The sprinklers at the edge of the Lawn have been relocated and are all messed up. They are now located around the north edge of the Lawn in the neighborhood of the gate, right where we set up. They went off at 0005 EDT and soaked by backpack and tripod bag and got water spots on the front lenses of my binoculars. The head just to the left of the gate shoots into the fence on both ends of its travel so you can't put anything near the fence. The last head to the east is about opposite the lamp post with the fire call box on it. That one points across the walk and does not move at all. They kicked off at 0005 and shut down at 0040 EDT. The outside edge of the walk is safe as there are no sprinkler heads on the north ballfields and the ones on the Lawn don't reach that far (at least not in a calm wind). That ended my serious observing.