29 July 2005

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1710-1725 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Hot and humid. Light stratus clouds and haze. Windy. Boiling easily evident. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Cnc
Category	Solar
Time	29Jul05; 1710 EDT
Comments	Sunspot activity is picking up with a large active region just rotating onto the face of the sun and a small group developing more toward the center. 791 NW quadrant. It appears to me as a fairly large spot surrounded by a void area. It is not large enough for me to detect a penumbra. 792 NE quadrant. This region has been active over the past week while it was on the back side and is just rotating onto the visible disk. It is a large group that looks like it is at least 5 spots although three of them appear to me to be a single spot. I suspect that they will turn out to be many smaller spots connected by a common penumbra. The spot is surrounded by a void area. 793 ? NE quadrant. This is a new group that is just approaching the meridian. In the SOHO photo it shows as two spots but I saw four. The p spot is the largest and the smaller f spots form the other corners of a square. There were no penumbras or void area visible. This group does not have a number posted on SpaceWeather.com yet.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 3 8 38 Southern Hemisphere 0 0 0 Total 3 8 38 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number 29 R = 10 * Groups + Spots

Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece, caught the ISS and STS-114 Discovery transiting the sun today. Based on his picture and how I perceive sunspot group 791 in my binoculars I think it should be possible for me to see the ISS transiting when the Shuttle is docked with it but it will be only slightly above my limits of detectability.

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Observing Location	Parkchester, Bronx, NY I started out looking for stars while reading at Metropolitan Oval then looked again outside the house and finally saw something so moved around to the back of the building where there aren't as many street lights and is a bit more open sky.
Observational Period	2130-2200 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It wasn't all that warm but the humidity made it feel a lot worse than it was. I was trying to read at the oval but my book was getting moist so I packed it in. I kept looking for stars hoping something would go nova and burn through the clouds but didn't have any luck. Jupiter is already behind the buildings by the time it gets dark and Mars doesn't rise above them until around 0100. Transparency Nil Seeing Unknown
Instruments	Naked-eye observing
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations	N - E 1.27 Zenith 0.05 W 0.0 S - Star Magnitude Vega α Lyr 0.05 Deneb α Cyg 1.27 Arcturus α Boo 0.00