2 April 2006

We set the colocks ahead to Daylight Saving Time this morning, officially at 0200. Now we are UTC -4.

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Observing Location	Met Oval
Observational Period	1300-1400 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was sunny and mile with a light breeze. There was a very light haze. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular with welder's glass - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Psc
Category	Solar
Time	20060402.1320 EDT
Comments	I went downtown this morning to see Ice Age II with a friend and had taken my compact binoculars and welder's glass with me anticipating that it would be sunny and I would get a chance to see the sunspots. On the way home I stopped off at the oval and observed for a bit. I should have stopped at the house and picked up the good binoculars but I was still able to see three groups of spots. I wasn't sure about calling 867 a group but it wasn't close enough to either 865 or 866 that I thought it belonged to either of them. When I got home and checked SpaceWeather I found that it did have its own number. I am all messed up with the time change as to where the north pole is. My mind tells me that the spots should be in lines moving across the Sun horizontally. But it doesn't seem like the Sun should be rotated that far over this early in the day. I think the spots should be in horizontal bands across the sun at 1300 EDT which is near noon solar time. 865 S Quadrant The spot is large and I think I am seeing it dimly without magnification but am not sure. At 8x it appears to have a tail attached to its trailing edge like a tadpole. 866 N Quadrant It appears as a single dark black spot. 867 N Quadrant This spot is two small, faint hyphens in a line.   Groups Spots R North 2 3 23 South 1 2 12 Total 3 5 35 Groups * 10 + Spots = Relative Sunspot Number Looking at the SOHO image it appears that 865 and 867 are just south of the equator and 866 a little bit north of it.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2000-2300 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was mild but the air was starting to get a bit moist so felt a little nippy. When I left the house I was seeing south and east and it looked clear. When I got onto the subway platform I could see clouds orr to the north and west. On arriving at the park there was a haze over the moon that made it look very diffuse and the early twilight sky appeared mottled. The clouds came and went during the might. It was never totally clear but there were moments of very nice viewing. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular - Charlie Peter was there with the Tack refractor but had it packed up ready to go home. He had it disassembled at home and forgot to pick up the diagonal so it made observing stars with it very difficult. He did use his Fujinon binocular and my instrument while he stayed there.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target	Mars
Constellation	Tau
Category	Planet
Time	20060402.2030 EDT
Comments	Mars looks very nice between the horns of Taurus, Alnath, β Tauri and ζ Tauri. It almost forms a straight line between them and is slightly closer to β than to ζ.

Target	M41, NGC 2287
Constellation	CMa
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060402.2040 EDT
Comments	Peter talked me onto this large, diffuse, dim cluster of stars. As usual, my tally of stars was lower than his. I think I got up to about a dozen stars on my second count. It is hard to know when you are out of the cluster and counting background stars.

Target	Saturn and M44
Constellation	Can
Category	Planet
Time	20060402.2035 EdT
Comments	With Saturn right on the edge of my FOV the Beehive cluster runs out of the field on the other side. They are so high that it is painful to crane your neck to look up at them through the binocular.

Target	M45
Constellation	Ori
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060402.2045 EDT
Comments	Nobulosity was not that great when observed directly but increased with averted vision. In the trapezium we could see three stars but could not split them. There was one bright star with the two dimmer stars attached to it forming a V. One of the dim stars had a red color to it.

Target	M67, M37, & M38
Constellation	Aur
Category	Deep Sky Objects
Time	20060402.2100 EDT
Comments	We got up into Auriga to look for the clusters there. These are always difficult for me to locate. I had trouble even getting into the neighborhood because I was not able to find the Cheshire Cat. Having the constelation upside down to what it was when we last observed in it got me all confused as to where things should be. After we found the cat I gound one of the clusters, M36 I think. Peter got M38 and I was able to see a faint glow that he said was the cluster. I never did see M37 even though he located it.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Tau
Category	Lunar
Time	20060402.2115 EDT
Comments	We spent a long time observing the Moon and had a big discussion about what we were seeing. We agreed about what it was that we were seeing and that we were both seeing the same thing, but we could not agree on what the feature was on Peter Astromist moon chart. The big discussion was about a large crater that had two craters on its northern rin Mickey Mouse fashion. There was a crater inside the rim on the western side and either a central peak or another crater at the center of the large crater - we never did agree on that. I thought the crater was Piccolomini based on it relationship to Fracastorius and Mare Nectaris above it. Peter was looking at something farther south along the terminator. Neither of the objects in the atlas were perfect matches but I think Piccolomini was a better match. I checked the Firefly Moon Observer's Guide and my Sky and Telescope Moon Map and can't locate the feature on either of them. I checked the online Full Moon Atlas and found a feature that resembled what I remember and it turns out to be Piccolomini. In Moon Observer's Guide Peter Grego has this to say about Piccolomini: Binocuars show the large prominent crater Piccolomini (88 km), over 100 km due south of Fracastorius. Piccolomini is slighhtly polygonal in outline, with broad inner terraces and a gray floor towered over by an impressive central mountain massif rising to 2000 meters. Through binoculars a bright curving line is visible running from the western flanks of Piccolomini to the terminator [5 day moon, ours was a 4 day moon]. This is Rupes Altai, the nearside's largest fault feature, at almost 500 km in length. These mountains present a curving, scalloped scarp face of staggering proportions whose origin is linked to the stresses set up in the lunar crust by the asteroidal impact which gouged out the Nectaris basin 3.9 billion years ago. The inner part of the basin is subsided, exposing the scarp face along the line of a deep-seated fault. The young crescent Moon shows Rupes Altai as a bright winding line, in places up to 15 km wide. I did mention what appeared to be a ridge inside Piccolomini running parallel to the equator from the western rim but this was not Rupes Altai. I also noted a mountain range or ridge running north-south to the east of Nectaris near the terminator which might have been Rupes Altai. Piccolomini still has my vote. Full Moon Atlas graphic

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Lib
Category	Planet
Time	20060402.2230 EDT
Comments	When Peter left around 2130 I walked over to the west side of the Lawn to set up for Jupiter. I had longer to wait than I had anticipated because I hadn't set planetarium to DST so it was reporting the wrong time for the rising. When it eventually rose I could see Io, Ganymete and Calisto all out to the left, Europa being in transit at the time. Calisto was over top of Ganymede.