12 January 2006

I have had another machine go belly up. I think I have salvaged 99.44% of my data but for the time being I can't access it. That includes the current template I use for the blog. So things may look a little different here for a while.

I am switching the way I record time here. The idea of this blog originally was that someday the entries might be moved into a database where they would be more easily searchable. The date format I was using wouldn't allow entries to be easily time sequenced so I am switching to a date/time format which, it seems to me, is similar to the stardate used in Captain Kirk's log in the TV series Star Trek. From now on, or at least until I come up with a better scheme, the date will be in the format
     YYYYMMDD.HHMMss EST(EDT)

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1915-2315 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	The temperature was very mile, in the upper 40s, but there was a moist wind blowing out of the south that made it feel a lot cooler. Initially the sky was clear but some clouds drifted in and there was a rainbow around the moon. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 - Charlie binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

Target	Chantal occults TYC 1843-00401-1
Constellation	Tau
Category	Occultation
Time	20060112.1915 EST
Comments	The target star was Mag 9.5 and there was only a 1% probability that it would be seen from NYC. But if I hadn't gone out to look my probability would have been 0% so I gave it a try. The occultation was due to occur at about 2021 EST so I was there in plenty of time to get my eqyipment set up and hop to the star. With the low probability of success I traveled light tonight with just the scope, short wave radio and a recorder. I spent over an hour trying to find the star but could not find anything that looked like the starfield in Planetarium. Eventually I decided that the stars were too dim for me to see. Since I was in the neighborhood of the Pleiades I headed up there to try and determine the limiting magnitude of my scope, something I should have already done.

Target	Orion's Sword
Constellation	Ori
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060112.2000 EST
Comments	There wasn't as much nebulosity visible tonight around M42/M43 as usual.

CT-100 Limiting Magnitude Observations

Star Magnitude Comments TYC 1800-2192-1 7.79   TYC 1800-1630-1 7.76   HIP 17684 6.98   HIP 17692 6.99   TYC 1800-1567-1 7.28   TYC 1261-611-1 7.15   HIP 18059 6.71   HIP 17921 6.05   HIP 17892 7.01   TYC 1800-118-1 7.73   HIP 17928 7.29   TYC 1260-800-1 8.19 just visble HIP 18097 5.57   HIP 17828 8.12   HIP 17694 8.17 just visible HIP 17572 6.85   TYC 1800-1729-1 8.83 I can tell there is something there but I can't see it; comes and goes TYC 1800-1621-1 8.15 comes and goes HIP 17832 6.47   HIP 17900 6.17   HIP 17923 6.73   TYC 1800-1406-1 8.09 dim HIP 17999 6.95   Atlas 3.62   Pleione 5.05   HIP 17862 6.62   TYC 1804-265-1 7.52   TYC 1800-985-1 7.53   TYC 1804-55-1 11.05 I must have picked the wrong star in planetarium TYC 1800-901-1 7.95   HIP 17791 6.96   TYC 1800-1546-1 8.23 dim HIP 17704 6.83   Alcyone 2.85   TYC 1800-2201-1 6.27   TYC 1800-1908-1 7.33   TYC 1800-1974-1 7.58   TYC 1800-1961-1 8.10   TYC 1799-79-1 7.86   TYC 1799-26-1 8.07   TYC 1799-184-1 7.18   Maia 3.87   Taygeta 4.30   Asterope 5.76   Sterope II 6.43   HIP 17664 6.83   TYC 1804-1961-1 7.67   TYC 1804-265-1 7.52   HIP 17862 6.62   HIP 18046 6.79   HIP 18106 6.77   TYC 1804-444-1 7.96   HIP 18201 6.35   HIP 18194 7.84   HIP 18491 7.50   TYC 1804-1699-1 8.59 very dim; only just visible TYC 1817-1662-1 11.21 I must have picked the wrong star in planetarium TYC 1804-1545-1 766 dim but solid TYC 1804-1558-1 8.06 dim but solid TYC 1808-210-1 7.97 dim but solid

Target	Moon
Constellation	Tau
Category	Lunar
Time	20060112.2115 EST
Comments	The moon was shining bright overhead and was probably reducing my limiting magnitude since it was centrally located to everything else I was ovserving. occultation target star 23°   Moon The Pleiades, M45 42° The Beehive, M44 26° Orion's Swoad, M42/M43 37° The moon looked very flat except in the "marshes" near Mare Crisium, which had a very soft appearance like moss. The views were not great due to the coma in the scope. The SE limb was obviously not complete but not far from it indicating that we were approaching Full Moon [20060114.0449]. There were lots of rays from Tych and Copernicus. Aristarchus and a small area just above Tycho both appeared chalky white.

Target	Saturn and M44
Constellation	Cnc
Category	Conjunction
Time	20060112.2130 EST
Comments	Planetarium indicated that tonight is the first of about 40 nights when Saturn and M44 will be in the same field of view in my telescope. It is really stretching my eyepiece to fit them both in right now but if I open my eye all the way and mash it into the eyepiece I can do it. The view should become more comfortable in a week or so. There was a "star" just off the plane of the rings to Saturn's 1:00 (7:00 binocular view) that does not appear in Planetarium and is probably Titan. Graphic from http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/blobrana/amiga/saturnmoons.htm#

CT-100 Limiting Magnitude Observations

Star Magnitude Comments HIP 42970 6.77   TYC 1396-259-1 9.63   HIP 42993 8.03   HIP 43044 8.26   HIP 42853 8.30   HIP 42705 7.90   TYC 1395-2711-1 7.29   TYC 1395-1993-1 7.45   HIP 42497 6.59   TYC 1395-1677-1 7.46   ε Cnc 6.29   HIP 42600 6.77   HIP 42578 6.83   HIP 42549 6.42   TYC 1395-2006-1 7.59   HIP 42485 6.65   HIP 42523 6.61   39 Cnc 6.39   TYC 1395-2334-1 7.74   TYC 1395-814-1 8.14   TYC 1395-821-1 8.30   TYC 1398-128-1 7.75   TYC 1395-2003-1 7.94

Target	My Birthday Star
Constellation	Hyd
Category	Double Star
Time	20060112.2300 EST
Comments	It has been a while since I checked up on my birthday star so I went out to the site in Hawaii last week to see what it is now. On 7 Jan06 it was τ1 Hyrdae, a Mag 4.6 star just past the first right angle bend of the snake's body and is 55.8 ly away. A line through the two bright stars of Leo points right at it. (I will have graphics of the location once I resurect my other machine.) Tonight I located the star which is an easily split double. It was low on the horizon when I first tried but by 2300 EST it was just cresting the trees. When I got home I checked the Joint Astronomy Centre web site again and found that I already have a new birthday star. They say that at Mag 5.4 I should just be able to see the star naked-eye from a dark sky sight. They neglect to say that that dark sky sight needs to be in the southern hemisphere since ι Hor, in the constellation Horologium, the Clock, is near the southern celestial pole. I don't know how they figure that straight line of stars with a minor foot on it is a clock. Maybe they were thinking of a massive grandfather clock, but they certainly weren't visualizing the face of any clock I have ever seen.