7 June 2005

Observing Location	Belvedere Castle, Central Park, New York, NY
Observational Period	1730-1900 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Very hot and humid with no wind. Mostly clear skies.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie 16x70 binoculars - Tom
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Tom Clabough

Target	Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos)
Constellation
Category	Fauna
Time	7Jun08; 1715 EDT
Comments	I was proceeding up the hill to Belvedere Castle from King Jagaello's statue and saw a duck on the pond with a bunch of ducklings swimming around it. I counted 10 ducklings that appeared to be about the size of one of the yellow plastic bathtub or amuzement park ducks, maybe smaller. The clutch size for a mallard is 10-12 so it isn't as unusual a sighting as I had thought.

Target	Sunspots
Constellation
Category	Solar
Time	7Jun05; 1730 EDT
Comments	The Sun is extremely active today, especially since we are in a sunspot minimum phase. There are five sunspot groups. Most of them are large and complex. There are a lot of penumbras. 772 SW quadrant. The leading spot group in the southern hemisphere. It is composed of at least three spots surrounded by a void. I did not detect any penumbras. 773 SW quadrant. This group appeared as two widely separated concentrations of spots, each surrounded by a void. The largest spot in the trailing grouping exhibited a penumbra. The voids appeared to be touching or nearly so. 774 NW quadrant. This is a pore that I had missed until after prolonged observation. 775 NE quadrant. A large spot with a penumbra. There was a smaller trailing spot lower on the disc and just outside of the penumbra. It was surrounded by a void. 776 SE quadrant. This is the largest and most complex spot. It has grown since yesterday. There is a large spot with a penumbra. Following it there is a stain, like an extension of the penumbra that doesn't surround any spots. There is a small spot just below and outside of the main penumbra. The whole group is surrounded by a void. There is a void area in the granular structure (a facula I think it is called) near the limb just below the equator (about 5:00 as I viewed it). There was no boiling visible at the upper and lower limb of the Sun. The polar coordinates I have marked on this diagram are way iff. The equator should pass above 776 and 772 and below 774 and 775.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 2 3 23 Southern Hemisphere 3 10 41 Total 5 13 63 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number 94

Target	Moon
Constellation	Tau
Category	Lunar
Time	7Jun05; 1800 EDT
Comments	I tried to find the 24:04 hours old moon without any luck.

Target	Venus
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	7Jun05; 1822 EDT
Comments	Venus was located by panning about 10º south of the sun and then up about 12º and searching the sky in that region. It appeared much larger than a star and a pure white spot on a pale blue ground. I used the same focus to find Venus as I had used for the Sun. While searching for it and observing it I had planes and birds fly through the field of view several times and they appeared in focus. This seems strange since we have noticed a slight focus shift when viewing the moon and the Pleiades in the same field of view. I would expect that planes and birds should be way out of focus.

---

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1700-2130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was hot and humid with only a little wind. The sky was mostly clear with a few fair weather cumulus clouds passing through quickly. For a hot day the air was very stable. I did not observe any atmospheric boiling when looking at either the Sun or the Moon even when looking out over the roofs of the buildings along Central Park West.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Ben Tacahashi 22x60 binoculars - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binoculars - Peter 16x70 binoculars - Tom 8-25x25 binoculars - Kin Audubon 6x16 monocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac Tom Clabough Kin Lee Richard Rosenberg

Target	Sun
Constellation	Tau
Category	Solar
Time	7Jun05; 1900 EDT
Comments	I observed the sun while waiting for the sky to get dark enough to find the Moon. It hadn't changed any from what I was seeing from Belvedere Castle, it just appeared higher in the sky. We had to keep moving clockwise around the Lawn to keep it above the trees and finally ended up on the lawn just south of the NE ballfield backstop.

Target	Venus
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	7Jun05; 2006 EDT
Comments	I searched out Venus in the binoculars and then located it naked-eye sometime between 2006 and 2010 EDT. Initially it was difficult to recover both in the binoculars and naked-eye but as the sun set and the skyy darkened it became easy.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Tau
Category	Lunar
Time	7Jun05; 2036 EDT
Comments	Peter was the first to spot the thin crescent Moon at 2033 EDT. After seeing it in his binoculars I finally found it but it was not easy. At the time the Moon was 1d2h40m old and only 1.1% illuminated (Planetarium). The inner arc of the crescent was very lumpy and craters or maria nearly isolated sections of the limb from the rest of it. I was not able to detect any earthshine over the rest of the disk, it ws just a thin sliver of light not too much brighter than the surrounding sky. It did appear just where I had predicted it. At 2041 EDT I was finally able to see it naked-eye but it was not solid. We moved off of the lawn back to the benches to extend the view by a few minutes. I didn't note what time the Moon dropped behind the trees on the western side of the Lawn. Starry Night Starter graphic. In this drawing I have drawn the moon in the center of the large circle the size it would be relative to my field of fiew. I have enlarged the shape of the lunar limb and crawn it along the edge of th field of view to provide more detail.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planets
Time	7Jun05; 2105 EDT
Comments	I first observed Jupiter in Peter's Tacahachis and was able to see banding on the disc after Ben had pointed it out. Hand holding my binoculars with image stabilization turned on I was able to see all four moons. Graphic by Jupiter Tool from Javascript AstroTools. 1 - Io; 2 - Europa; 3 - Ganymede; 4 - Callisto

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planets
Time	7Jun05; 2115 EDT
Comments	I observed Saturn through Peter's Tacahachis. It wasn't a spectacular naked-eye sight being dim in a fairly light sky. It was a while before Castor and Pollux were esily seen. I could see space between the rings and planet but did not find any moons although the focus in the binoculars might not have been sharp enough to pick up Titan if it was visible above the afterglow.

---

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2230-2430 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	On returning to the park after dinner there were a lot of clear weather cumulus clouds passing through, but the sky between them looked very dark. The temperature only dropped to around 78º and the winds were calm to light. The air never felt moist. I was seeing a lot deeper tonight than I have for a while. Transparency very good Seeing very good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie Tacahashi 22x60 binoculars - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target	M29, NGC6913
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	7Jun05; 2245 EDT
Comments	An open cluster cust below where the swan's neck joins the wings (Sadr). I detected it in Peter's binoculars but didn't in mine. My Stars graphic

Target	M39, NGC7092
Constellation	Cyg
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	7Jun05; 2302 EDT
Comments	An open cluster below the tail of the swan (Deneb). A big, bright, loose cluster of stars taking up about 1/3 of my field of view. I counted 9 stars in my binoculars and Peter counted 10 in his. My Stars Graphic

Target	M9, NGC6333
Constellation	Oph
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	7Jun05, 2315 EDT
Comments	Not Seen A globular cluster in Ophiuchus near Sco and Sgr. My Stars Graphic

Target	M12, NGC6218
Constellation	Oph
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	7Jun05; 2325 EDT
Comments	Not Seen A globular cluster in the center or Ophiuchus. My Stars Graphic

Target	M10, NGC6254
Constellation	Oph
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	7Jun05; 2330
Comments	Not seen in my bonoculars but detected in Peter's. A globular cluster in the heart of Oph that lies just below M12 and would be in the same field of view with it. FOV in my binoculars. FOV in Peter's binoculars.

Target	M14, MGC6402
Constellation	Oph
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	8Jun05; 0008 EDT
Comments	Not seen in my binoculars, detected in Peter's. A globular cluster in the trailing part of Ophiuchus. My Stars Graphic