4 October 2005

Observing Location	Riverside Park, New York, NY Lat: 40.78154068326158, Long: -73.9870834350586 I entered the park and at Riverside Drive and 72 St and proceeded downhill on the path passing under the West Side Highway. Immediately on exiting the tunnel there was a place along a wall with a clear view out over the Hudson River to where the sun would be setting. Elevation above the river was about 30 feet. The ambiance left a lot to be desired as every dog and drunk in NYC must use that location as a bathroom. It is not an unknown odor as increasingly I am smelling it even in the best neighborhoods of the City in the evenings after there has been a full day of dog walking without the doormen hosing off the sidewalks. It must be even worse in areas where they don't have doormen.
Observational Period	1800-1900 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was warm and humid. There was a lot of haze on the horizon and mares tales above. The sky looked clear above 20° or so. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binocular with Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Vir
Category	Solar
Time	4Oct05; 1800 EDT
Comments	Where did this spot come from. It sure wasn't there yesterday and it is big. 813 SE quadrant. This is a large group of spots with four that I can identify in the binoculars. There is no penumbra but the group is surrounded by a large area with no rice grain structure.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 0 0 0 Southern Hemisphere 1 4 14 Total 1 4 14 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number 15 R = 10 * Groups + Spots There seems to be a major disconnect between the SOHO MDI image, the Sunspot Number and the text summary posted on the SpaceWeather.com web site. Over the weekend I have seen times when the image has been days old, there have been spots in the image but the sunspot number was posted as zero and now there are spots clearly visible and numbered in the thumbnail and the sunspot number is 15 but the text says there are no spots visible. This has become a very unreliable source of information.

Target	Venus
Constellation	Lib
Category	Planet
Time	4Nov05; 1840 EDT
Comments	Venus was high in the sky over the West Side Highway. It was very bright and flared badly in the binoculars.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Vir
Category	Lunar
Time	4Nov05; 1844 EDT
Comments	I wasn't having any luck finding the Moon either by offsetting from the Sun or with my compass so I tried offsetting from Venus. This got me into a different area of the sky and while sweeping I stumbled across the faint crescent. I was surprised at the shape of the Moon. Since it had risen a few days ago as a smile I was expecting it to set today as a frown. But I found that it was illuminated as a thin crescent between about 2:00 and 5:00. Thinking about where the Sun was I should have expected it to be illuminated between about 2:00 and 8:00, and maybe it was but the lower part was blocked by the haze, but I don't think so. I observed it a while there jumped back and forth between it and Jupiter but eventually lost it while I was on Jupiter of searching for Mercury.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planet
Time	4Nov05; 1851 EDT
Comments	After finding the Moon I panned over a little better than a FoV and found Jupiter. It was a big white dot on a gray or orange background.

Target	Mercury
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planet
Time	4Nov05; 11855 EDT
Comments	Mercury is just too low and too dim to punch through the haze and was not seen.

I am getting the feeling that Planetarium is not pointing me to the same place my compass is and will need to compare what it is telling me with what I can observe. It seems that when I looked where the azimuth reading said the moon would be today that I was looking to the right of where I should be by about 10 degrees. That sounds like something is going screwy with the declination. The declination here is 13°W and Planetarium says it is 13.5°W and is reporting azimuths in degrees magnetic so should agree with my compass. I need to conduct some field verifications and use multiple compasses.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2030-2300 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It started out pretty cloudy then cleared off for a bit but by 2230 EDT the air was very moist and everything was feeling clammy. Transparency Poor Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binocular - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude Observations

N 3.07 E 2.96 Zenith 3.22 W 3.26 S 3.19 Star Magnitude Sagittarius, The Archer Nunki ο Sgr 2.04 φ Sgr 3.19 Aquila, The Eagle Altair α Aql 0.79 Tarazed γ Aql 2.74 Deneb el Okab ζ Aql 3.01 Lyra, The Lyre Vega α Lyr 0.05 Sulafat γ Lyr 3.26 Draco, The Dragon Eltanin γ Dra 2.25 Rastaban β Dra 2.81 η Dra 2.76 Aldhibah ζ Dra 3.19 Nodus Secundus δ Dra 3.09 Ursa Minor, The Little Bear Polaris α UMi 2.04 Phrerkad γ UMi 3.07 Kochab β UMi 2.10 Cassiopeia, The Queen Caph β Cas 2.29 Schedar α Cas 2.25 Ruchbah δ Cas 2.70 γ 2.49 Perseus, The Hero Mirfak α Per 1.81 Algol β Per 2.14 Andromeda, The Chained Maiden Alpheratz α And 2.08 Mirach β And 2.08 Pegasus, The Winged Horse Scheat β Peg 2.44 Matar η Peg 2.96 Markab α Peg 2.51 Enif ε Peg 2.41 Aquarius, The Water Bearer Sadalsuud β Aqr 2.93 Cygnus, The Swan Deneb α Cyg 1.27 Sadr γ Cyg 2.22 Alberio β Cyg 3.10 δ Cyg 2.89 Gienah Cygni ε Cyg 2.48 ζ Cyg 3.22

Target	Piscius Austrinus, The Southern Fish
Constellation	PsA
Category	Constellation
Time	4Oct05; 2113 EDT
Comments	Other than Fomahaut I could not locate any other stars of this constellation without the binoculars. Genitive: Piscis Austrini Name Bayer Designation Mag Meaning Fomalhaut α PsA 1.18 fish's mouth   Yale 8721 6.50     Yale 8719 6.12     δ PsA 4.23     γ PsA 4.48     Yale 8680 6.35     β PsA 4.31     μ PsA 4.52     τ PsA 4.94     ε PsA 4.19     ι PsA 4.36     θ PsA 5.03     Yale 8444 5.39     Yale 8433 5.01

Target	α Perseus Association
Constellation	Per
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	4Oct05; 2114 EDT
Comments	I resolved 20 stars.

Target	M31, Andromeda Galaxy
Constellation	And
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	4Oct05; 2118 EDT
Comments	Easy to spot with direct or averted vision.

Target	NGC7789
Constellation
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	4Oct05; 2122 EDT
Comments	I am really unsure about this one. I saw a large ring of brighter stars in the right place.

Target	NGC457
Constellation
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	4Oct05; 2126 EDT
Comments	Several dim stars seen around a bright one in the right area.

Target	M103, NGC581
Constellation
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	4Oct05, 2133 EDT
Comments	A shallow isosoles triangle with two stars in a row between the apex and base.

Target	Double Cluster
Constellation	Per
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	4Oct05; 2140 EDT
Comments	Only the brightest stars ate visible tonight. The lower cluster looks like a big figure 8. In the upper cluster there are four stars in the shape of a frown.

Target	ψ Piscium, Struve 88
Constellation	Psc
Category	Double Star
Time	4Oct05; 2200 EDT
Comments	I am on the right star but I can not see a secondary anywhere.

Target	ν Dra
Constellation	Dra
Category	Double Star
Time	4Oct05; 2204 EDT
Comments	A very easy, loose double of similar color and magnitude.

Target	Dsiban
Constellation
Category	Double Star
Time	4Oct05; 2222 EDT
Comments	A tight double. The primary is light green and the secondary golden and appears to me about half as bright.

Target	Kemble's Cascade & NGC1502
Constellation	Cam
Category	Asterism & Deep Space Object
Time	4Oct05; 2245 EDT
Comments	The double in NGC1502 in the bird's foot is very tight but cleanly split.

Target	Mars
Constellation	Tau
Category	Planet
Time	4Oct05; 2249 EDT
Comments	Almost looks like Saturn. The right side is very flat and flare causes light spikes there.

Target	M45, The Pleiades, NGC1
Constellation	Tau
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	4Oct05; 22505 EDT
Comments	6 stars were seen naked eye

Target	Aldeberan α Tau
Constellation	Tau
Category	Star
Time	4Oct05; 2251 EDT
Comments	Could not be seen without the binoculars

Target	Attempted but Not Seen
Constellation
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	4Oct05
Comments	Object Constellation NGC663 Cas M33 Triangulum Galaxy NGC598 Tri M13 Hercules Cluster NGC6205 Her M92 NGC6341 Her M9 NGC6333 Her