7 December 2005

Observing Location	Ft. Tryon Park, New York, NY Lat: 40° 51’ 40.10”, Long: -73° 56’ 01.28” from Google Earth (40° 51.668’, -73° 56.021’) Lat: 40° 51.658’. Long: -73° 56 .027’ by GPS Difference between points is 66.727 feet (20.338 meters) Google Earth graphic I came out of the subway at a different entrance than I have previously used and ended up on Bennett St. rather than on Ft. Washington Ave. From there, and without a map, I was unable to find Margaret Corbin Plaza, where I wanted to enter the park, and ended up climbing what seemed to be a mountain goat path up the west side of although Google Earth says the altitude gain was only 35 feet . I don’t believe that though. Entering the park this way it is clear to see why this location was an important one during the Revolutionary War. The route I used to get to the park is illustrated below by the orange dashed line. It is about 0.51 miles long and has an elevation gain of nearly 200 feet. The route I should have used is the solid yellow line which is about 0.16 miles long with an elevation gain of less than 20 feet. DeLorme TopoUSA Version 5.0 graphic On the way home I found that the M4 bus begins its route at the park entrance. When it reaches 110 St it heads east and then down Fifth Avenue where I transferred to the subway. The bus I got terminated its route somewhere between 125 St and Columbia University but I don't know if the route is normally run in two sections or just late at night. I had originally planned to observe this event from Westchester County. I thought I might go to Scarsdale where the limit line nearly passes over the house of a friend but he has moved. The limit line passes near the Yonkers train stations so I started researching them and found that it crossed the tracks between the Riverdale and Ludlow stations. Searching the maps it looked like there might be a place out by the water at the Yonkers station that would be north of the line by about 1.7 km and a park just north of the Ludlow station that was about 0.95 km north of the line. Finally I saw that the line appeared to cross the campus of Mount St. Vincent College so I started to research them. Their web site indicated in the information for prospective students that you could study physics to prepare you to go on to study astrophysics in an advanced degree program. But there is nobody on the faculty who teaches physics. After searching around I finally found an email address for the security director and sent him a message explaining what I wanted to do. He replied back late in the evening saying the location I had indicated was not on their campus but rather the Hebrew Home for the Aged. I researched them and found an 800 number which I called in the morning. Eventually I got to their security department who said I couldn’t observe there because it was a Jewish institution and they had security concerns but he recommended the adjacent Cardinal Spellman retreat house who he said he was sure would welcome me. I talked to Bill in their security department who was quite blunt in stating that I couldn’t do it there for security reasons and that he didn’t know of anyone in the area who would permit it. His only suggestion was a new park that had been created along the river south of the Ludlow station. I had seen that park listed on someone’s blog and emailed her about it but hadn’t received a reply yet. Since the park is south of the limit line it didn’t seem appropriate and I decided to try the event from the parking lot of the Ludlow station which is right on the limit line. About this time I get word from Dave Dunham that the best location was 1.6-2.6 km south of the limit line with other possible locations at 0.8-1.0 km south and 1.4-2.7 km north. 2.6 km south of the line was in Ft Tryon and Inwood Parks so I decided to do the event on the cheap and go to The Cloisters.
Observational Period
Atmospheric Conditions	Here is the last weather update for tonight's Grazing Occultation. It is going to be brisk with the wind chill down at 22°F. After and hour or two of that, and no dinner yet, I don't think I will be up for any more observing although the sky should be good. Clear Sky Clock graphic NOAA graphic For the time period 1730-1830 CSC probably is in good agreement with the observed conditions in ragard to cloud cover but thereafter the sky was cloudless except possibly for some high cirrus clouds that went undetected. They were too conservative on transparency during the observational period. It was indeed cold and windy but I set up in the Heather Garden which is in a slight depression and used a large evergreen bush as a further windbreak so was out of the worst of the wind. I seem to have hit the right mix of clothing for those conditions too.
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian Reflector – Charlie SAR wasn’t behaving badly, but I was having trouble getting single views of the moon. Unless I got my eye at just the right spot there was always a ghost image on the limb. I think someone got a fingerprint on my lens the other night down at the corporate event at South Street Seaport. I had the Canon 15x50 IS binocular with me but never took them out.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Moon
Constellation	Aqr
Category	Lunar
Time	1730 EST
Comments	The terminator was running between 1:00 and 7:00 and just east of Mare Serenitatis. The only features remarked were the craters Aristoteles and Eudoxux. The Moon was transiting (1738 EST) and during most of my observations I was racking the scope down.

Target	Venus
Constellation	Sgr
Category	Planet
Time	1745 EST
Comments	I observed the Venus setting through the branches of a denuded tree. It looked just like a little moon with a chunk missing from its lower right quadrant. It appeared more there than not there to me.

Target	Mars
Constellation	Ari
Category	Planet
Time	1830
Comments	I caught Mars as it was just clearing the trees on the ridge line above me. By this time it had lost most of its intense orange color and was just a very bright flaring, circle in my telescope.

Target	Grazing Occultation of SAO 165346
Constellation	Aqr
Category	Occultation
Time	1850 EST
Comments	Not Seen I never saw the target star. I was able to see HIP 113031 (Mag 5.80) and the Moon and HIP112974 (Mag 6.74) if I moved the Moon out of the FOV, but was not able to see HIP 112615 (Mag 6.19), on the bright side and closer to the moon, at all. Although my scope has a theoretical limiting magnitude of greater than Mag 11, I now know that in the real world I can't even see a Mag 6.7 star approaching the dark limb of a 45% illuminated moon, or a Mag 6 star coming out of occultation on the bright limb of that same moon. Occult probably would have told me this in the chart at the bottom of the details page but we don't get along well so it isn't even loaded on this incarnation of my machine.