30 October 2005

Observing Location	Unionport road at Guerlain St (Parkchester), Bronx, NY Lat:40.84037250465207, Long -73.8625967502594
Observational Period	1605-1620 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	clear and mild with a light breeze, no haze; some boiling. 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	1605-1620 EST
Comments	After the time change this morning I had a lot of trouble finding a location where I could even see the Sun in the late afternoon and was unable to find a location where seating was also available. 818 SE quadrant. Small spots that were barely visible.   Groups Spots R Northern Hemisphere 0 0 0 Southern Hemisphere 1 2 12 Total 1 2 12 NOAA Boulder Sunspot Number R = 10 * Groups + Spots

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Observing Location	TotL There are multiple rotating spotlights on top of the GE building to celebrate the reopening of the observation deck there. (There had been an observation deck there for a long time which had very nice views but it was closed some 20 years ago when the Rainbow Room was expanded and blocked access to the roof. Now the Rainbow Room has down sized and only does catered events and the roof has been redesigned and reopened.) It looks like there is probably one of those sets of four lights on each end of the building. The spend part of their time aimed fairly low and their light extends north so that it can be seen above the police precinct building. It is making the Southern sky basically unusable and is very annoying to the east and west. Hopefully it will not be there for long.
Observational Period	2015-0100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Clear and cool. It was a little hazy early but that improved but as transparency improved it also got breezy buffeting the telescope. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Coulter CT-100 - Charlie Fujinon 10x70 binocular - Ben Teleport 10" Dobsonian reflector - Peter Pentax 20x60 binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Ben Cacace Peter Tagatac Kin Lee

I had Some Assembly Required out tonight. The views were not too bad but I just wasn't into doing a lot of star hopping so didn't use it much. I looked at a few objects through the Teleport and Ben's binocular but mostly just enjoyed being with the guys after about three weeks of bad weather and no observing. I didn't make any observing notes at all.

Target	Mars
Constellation	Tau
Category	Planets
Time	30Oct05
Comments	We looked at Mars in the Teleport at some high magnifications (~160x) and got some very nice views. Unfortunately the wind was moving the scope around at the end of the night when Mars was at its highest and should have afforded the best views. We did see a dark stripe stretching across the planet with a break in its middle. To the right Syrtis Major Planitia extended down. I saw a last-quarter-moon-shaped crescent of darkness above the stripe along the left limb in a moment of better seeing. Ben reported seeing an area of white to the right of my crescent a couple of times but I never observed it. Both Ben and Peter saw spider-leg-like tendrils extending up from the stripe to support the white ball and that may be what my crescent-moon-like dark area was also.