15 April 2006

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1800-2400 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It had been mostly cloudy all afternoon. I was in Bryant Park and checked my email finding a message from Peter suggesting we go to TotL to try for 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann and replied that the weather didn't look great for it but I would give it a try as there was a daytime Iridium Flare there that I wanted to see. By the time I got into the park the clouds had broken up to a few broken stripes of cumulus cloud off in the distance and a very occasional cloud overhead. It looked like it was clear but the sky wasn't really black. When the Moon rose it looked very strange. There was a glow of light around it for 115-20°, but there was no strong ring of illuminated cloud or ice crystals visible. The wind picked up late and it was so strong in the gusts that whole trees were in motion indicating wind of between 25 and 38 mph. Checking the NOAA broadcast on the way home they were saying wind speeds of 25 mph but were not saying anything about gusts on top of that. The wind was causing the images to dance a bit in the scope and fainter objects weren't always there. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Tacahaschi 102 refractor - Peter 10x50 binocular - Bruce
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Bruce Kamiat

There was a lot of public interaction tonight and since we only had a limited window of time to try for 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann and no other real agenda it was fine and made the night pass quickly. Michelle, the security guard from the Met stopped off and took an astronomy class from Bruce. Hawiian George was through late.

When Peter started packing up I was thinking it must be about 2230-2300 EDT although he said it was getting late. It wasn't until I got to the subway that I realized it was after midnight.

Target	Iridium Flare
Constellation
Category	Satellite
Time	20060415.1826 EDT
Comments	Not Seen I had an old appointment in my Palm indicating a daytime Iridium flare of Mag -7.8 tonight which would have been the brightest I have ever seen I think. I confirmed the location and time on Heavens Above and think I was looking at the right patch of sky at that time, but did not see anything

We did some specuating about what would be the first object to become visible. Peter initially thought it would be Saturn while I cast my vote for Procyon based on my memory of last week in Staten Island. I think Sirius was the first thing we saw but it took a long while for enough stars to come out to make a positive identification of anything. Saturn was the first thing I was sure of once Pollux became visible and there was a hint of Castor. By then β Tau was visible and along with Capella allowed me to confirm Mars. Orion's Belt became dimly visible so I confirmed Betelgeuse, Sirius anProcyonon. I followed the handle of the Big Dipper and located Arcturus in the trees behind us.

Peter and I were both commenting tonight that we have become very lax in documenting what we are observing. While I do try to back out the sightings for my notes I am not making notes in the field as I make the observations so don't have a time reference for most of them and many of the time references that are appearing are relative references. My current machine and internet connectivity problems are not helping me and are going to get blog posts delayed although I plan to keep writing them in real time.

Target	Saturn
Constellation	Cnc
Category	Planets
Time	20060415.2015 EDT
Comments	Saturn looked very crisp at low power (~80x) and a bit soft at high power (~160x). I picked out the A, B and C rings at both powers. I was only able to find Titan at high power but with the crisper view at low power also saw two of the dimmer moons. If the seeing had been more solid I probably would have also seen them at high power. The shadow of the planet was visible in both views as was a band across the face of the planet. The north pole can be seen above the plane of the rings. The C ring looked darker tonight than it usually is. Peter referred to it as charcoal gray.

Target	P73/Schwassmann-Wachmann
Constellation	Boo
Category	Comet
Time	20060415. EDT
Comments	Not Seen We searched for the comet twice and weren't able to see it. On the first attempt Peter said the sky was very gray and gave up on it. Later he came back to it and thought he might have seen something with averted vision while slewing the scope and asked me to take a look. I thought I might have seen something too, like a big cotton ball. But my thing was not in the same place as his. I also felt like there might have been something else there, much smaller and off to the side. Bruce also looked and thoguht there might be something where I was looking, but none of us are sure enough about what we saw to claim it. We all may have been using averted imagination.

Target	NGC 2903
Constellation	Leo
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060415. EDT
Comments	A faint fuzzy off the nose of the lion. It was really faint.

Target	M13
Constellation
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060415. EDT
Comments	I don't remember getting a look at this object. It was something Bruce wanted to see.

Target	Mars
Constellation	Gem
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060415. EDT
Comments	Mars has slipped into Gem without me realizing it.We did this just to show a young couple what the planet looks like as opposed to a star. The hearby stars were like small pinpricks while the planet looked about like the head of the pin.

Target	M44
Constellation	Cnc
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060415. EDT
Comments	Peter moved up here from M31 so George could see the difference between the two clusters. M44 filled the field with bright stars and stardust could be seen between them.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Lib
Category	Planet
Time	20060415. EDT
Comments	Jupiter was just starting to top the trees while we were breaking down the scope so we didn't get a look at it. Planetarium says there were three moons on one side and one on the other.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Lib
Category	Lunar
Time	20060415.2400 EDT
Comments	Full Pink Moon The Moon looked very strange tonight as it rose over the trees. It looked a little subdued or soft although there was no noticible atmosphere to cause the effect. It was cream colored. I could see a mare in the upper right quadrant and a dark stripe running down the meridian then a distinct dark spot just off the stripe in the lower right quadrant. There was a glow around the moon a great distance away from it, up nearly to Jupiter (11°) and farther than that to the south.