2 October 2005

Observing Location	CSP
Observational Period	0530-0800 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	The air was a little moist and there was haze on the horizon. There were mare's tails in the area of 10°-20° to the SE. The sky was mostly clear and blue to the south and west. It was warmer today than it was yesterday. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binocular with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Cnc
Category	Planets
Time	2Oct05; 0530 EDT
Comments	Saturn looked cigar shaped. I didn't sweep up to see it along with M44.

Target	Orion
Constellation	Ori
Category	Deep Space Objects and Double Stars
Time	2Oct05; 0530 EDT
Comments	M42, The Orion Nebula, NGC1976 and M43, NGC1982 M42 had a banana shaped glow to it. The Trapezium could be seen embedded in it. There was a lightness in the sky to the upper left of the nebula which may have been M43. Struve 743 Easily separated with a color difference but I am not sure what shades or white to green they were. NGC1977, Running Man Nebula I did not see any nebulosity here. NGC1981 This open cluster looks like two parallel arcs of three stars each with a single star to its outside -- .) ). Mintaka The right star of the Belt, it is a very easy and unequal double. M78, McNeil's Nebula, NGC2068 Not Seen

Target	Mars
Constellation	Tau
Category	Planet
Time	2Oct05; 0555 EDT
Comments	Very bright and flaring. I had intended to get back to it when there was not so much contrast with the background sky but that didn't happen.

Target	M45, The Pleiades
Constellation	Tau
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	2Oct05, 0555 EDT
Comments	Counted 6 stars naked-eye.

The horizon is getting lighter and starting to turn orange just above the buildings. It looks like there is haze and clouds to the east.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Vir
Category	Lunar
Time	2Oct05; 0558 EDT
Comments	Not Seen The whole point of getting up at 0400 EDT and coming all the way down here was to see the last crescent moon of this lunation and, just like last month, it was clouded out. 0625 EDT It is longer after moonrise than it was yesterday when Kin first sighted the moon and there is no sign of it yet. The moon should be higher and farther south today than it was yesterday at a similar time period after rising. I think it is probably just below the colored clouds. The horizon is a deep orange/red. It looks like the TV pictures of clouds made red by a wildland fire. 0645 EDT The haze seems to be getting higher over the horizon and there are mare's tails in the area where the moon is going to be. 0655 EDT The haze has pretty much merged with the bottom of the mare's tails and the horizon behind my "guard tower" (probably a water tower with a fancy curtain wall around it) is becoming very bright. My only hope now is to wait until the Sun and Moon clear the clouds and see if I can find it by offsetting from the Sun. The next chance to try and catch a last crescent moon will be on the morning of Monday, 31Oct05 when the moon will rise at 0552 EDT, 2.9% illuminated and 19° from the sun.

Target	Birds
Constellation
Category	Fauna
Time	2Oct05; 0640 EDT
Comments	There is a terrible racket of birds in the trees behind and to the south of me. There isn't any sound at all from the trees on the north side of the main steps up to Finley Walk. This has probably been going on for a while and I am just becoming aware of it now like when we heard the robins waking up at 0400 EDT at TotL. I have no idea what kind of birds they are.

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Vir
Category	Solar
Time	2Oct05; 0730 EDT
Comments	At 0707 EDT the sun is fully above the roofs of the buildings obscuring my horizon. It is big and orange and looks oblate. There is one small spot visible in the upper right quadrant (SW). By 0710 the sun had already lost its oblateness. 812 SW quadrant. The spot appears larger and darker today.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 0 0 0 Southern Hemisphere 1 1 11 Total 1 1 11 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number R = 10 * Groups + Spots

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It looked hazy here at sunset and I have had a headache this afternoon so I didn't go downtown to observe even though Clear Sky Clock said it wouldn't be too bad out tonight and NOAA tended to agree. Instead I worked on my telescope and filed the screw hole for the drawtube.

I chose to file the front hole since the secondary mirror appears to be closer to the front of the cell than it should be and this should bring it into a little closer alignment, but probably not enough that it will be noticed.

Peter said that he covers the secondary with a sock when he works on his scope so I did that mostly to protect the mirror a little from the tip of the file in case I slip and it strikes the mirror. I put a sandwich bag over the sock, and placed the whole secondary cage in a grocery bag to catch the metal filings.

I have a set if needle files from Radio Shack that are really small and the rat tail file easily fit in the screw hole. I filed for a short time and hardly made any metal filings that I could find, but when I checked the fit I found that I could then get both screws started although they wouldn't tie up tight. So I filed for a little longer and checked again and everything is fine now.

I screwed the screws in most of the way by hand then used my small ratchet driver but found that it was too big to fit between the secondary and the front screw. I need an offset screwdriver to really tighten that screw. There is one of those around here that my father had if I can ever find it. But I got that screw pretty tight and really cranked on the rear screw so the drawtube isn't going anywhere. But when I tried to insert the eyepiece as a final check I found that it landed on the secondary cage so I had to loosen the screws and move the drawtube around to get a better alignment of its hole with the hole in the secondary cage. It isn't perfect but to get it better I would have to file on the sides of one or both holes and it isn't worth it for the amount it is off. A slight amount of pressure gets the eyepiece in place and it doesn't bind once it is fully inserted so I will live with it as is until I replace the drawtube with a helical focuser.

I emailed KenOptics tonight but am not real hopeful that they will be able to supply me with a focuser any time soon although their web site says they are in stock. The company is located in Slidel, LA, just across the Lake Ponchetrain causeway from New Orleans so would have been impacted to some extent by the hurricanes.