31 August 2005

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1420-1500 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Hot, very humid, mostly cloudy and very strong gusty winds. You could hear the wind howling in the elevator shaft and when I got home it was hard to open the elevator door because of the positive pressure in the hallway from wind blowing down the compactor chute. It took twice as log as it normally does to make my observations of a simpler than usual sun. I had to wait several times while clouds passed through. When I got home I was so hot I had to jump right into the shower. There was no boiling evident but it was hard to hold the binocular steady in the wind. It would have been nearly impossible to observe with a telescope. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binocular - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Leo
Category	Solar
Time	31Aug05; 1420 EDT
Comments	SOHO and I are seeing a different sun. Their high resolution image shows spots I am not seeing. And what I see as a small spot that is part of group 805 is a group of smaller spots that they call 806. I did pick up a plage area on the leading limb but it looks like there are two of them in the satellite image. 805 SE quadrant. I made this out as a larger spot and a smaller spot with no penumbra or disturbance in the chromosphere's texture around it.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 0 0 0 Southern Hemisphere 1 2 12 Total 1 2 12 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number 68 R = 10 * Groups + Spots

I have been doing a lot of research into JavaScript and trying to debug some new features for my occultation maps web page and most of my creative energies have gone there rather than here. But I have been working a bit on Some Assembly Required. The solar filter is nearly finished and could be used if I had an eyepiece. I also have nearly completed building a shroud for it. Both of these projects require the purchase of minor parts that I can't get around here so will have to buy in Manhattan. I was going to get them tonight but the meeting I was supposed to be attending has been pushed back to next week and moved uptown away from the store I need to visit. If the weather is good I will be in the neighborhood of another store over the weekend and can get the supplies then.

I got all my tools out yesterday and the Astronomy Hacks book and started reviewing the instructions for collimation the primary mirror and found that it can't be done without at least an official collimation laser and preferably a Barlow as well. So that will have to wait for a while.

A while back I picked up a copy of Making Your Own Telescope by Allyn J. Thompson. It was written as a series of articles in Sky and Telescope back in the '30s. In 1947 the articles were assembled into a book which was subsequently republished by S&T in 1973 and then by Dover Publications in 2003. My copy had been banged about a bit and looks older than that but I got it for $7.50 rather than the $15.00. Thompson, it turns out taught telescope making for the AAA when they had an optical division and met in the basement of the Hayden Planetarium. I am not planning to grind my own mirror or build a scope but I figured if I read this book I would have a better idea of how to deal with some of the challenges SAR is presenting. So far I have learned that the comma shaped stars Peter and I observed last week are an effect called coma. I think it is a problem with the shape of the mirror. But whatever the cause it is more pronounced in a fast focal ration scope like mine.

Observing Statistics Year To Date

	Night			Day			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	9.80	4	2.44	3.80	4	0.94	13.50	6	2.25
Feb	14.00	9	1.56	1.30	2	0.63	15.30	9	1.69
Mar	15.30	9	1.69	2.50	2	1.25	17.80	10	1.78
Apr	40.50	11	3.86	6.80	4	1.69	49.30	12	4.10
May	18.30	6	3.04	4.80	8	0.59	23.00	9	2.56
Jun	22.80	9	2.53	16.30	16	1.02	44.80	16	2.80
Jul	26.00	12	2.17	3.70	15	0.25	29.70	16	1.86
Aug	19.00	9	2.11	8.00	6	1.33	27.00	13	2.08
Total	167.50	69	2.43	47.49	58	0.82	221.74	92	2.41

August Solar Observing Report to AAVSO

Aug705	UT	Seeing	Groups	Spots	W	Location	Comments
1	2155	vg	5	12	62	Parkchester, Bronx, NY	warm, hazy, light breeze, minimal boiling, nice stable view
2	2110	e	3	7	37	Parkchester	hot, breezy, fair weather cumulus, no boiling
3	1025	e	4	14	54	Carl Schurz Park, New York, NY	lots of boiling early but then very stable, warm and clear, no wind
4	1040	g	3	11	41	Carl Schurz Park	Hot and clear, no wind, very stable
12	1100	e	1	1	11	Belvedere Castle, Central Park, New York, NY	comfortably warm and humid, light haze, partly cloudy, excellent seeing
17	2030	e	1	1	11	Parkchester	warm, occasional gusts, widely scattered fair weather cumulus, no boiling at all
22	2220	f	2	6	26	Parkchester	breezy and warm, mostly clear, no boiling but a lot of refocusing
31	1820	g	1	1	11	Parkchester	broken clouds, hot and humid, strong gusty wind, no boiling