27 April 2006

Observing Location	Met Oval
Observational Period	1600-1615 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Mostly Cloudy. I had to wait for gaps in the clouds to see the Sun. Transparency Seeing
Instruments	Canon IS 15x50 binocular with Baader AstroSolar filter film -- Charlie I have kept forgetting to replace the depleted batteries in the binocular and was trying to observe with neither a tripod nor image stabilization. Even sitting I was not able to hold the binocular still enough to see more than susnpot groups.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Ari
Category	Solar
Time	2006 EST
Comments	When did the sun sneak over into Aries. It has been a while since I have done any solar observing. Without image stabilization I can't tell much more that that there are what I interpret as three groups on the sun. I think they are all in the northern hemisphere. The leading group is large and looks like it has some small spots training the umbra but I can't be certain of that. The trailing group is much smaller but still large enough to be easily seen and appears to be a single spot. Between them is a small, gray, single spot that I take to be its own group. Checking SpaceWeather.com on the 28th they are showing my two trailing groups to be a single group, 876, which is very low in the southern hemisphere for this part of the sunspot cycle. 875, the large leading spot is very complex with many small spots trailing the main spot, and is also in the southern hemisphere but nearer the equator.     Groups Spots R North 3   South 0     Total 3     10*G+S=K

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2200-0015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Partly to mostly cloudy. When I got home and checked the midnight observed condition I was surprised to find that it was only down to the high 50s. Standing out there in it I would have put it in the 40s. The wind kicked up to the point that the tops of the large trees were in motion so I am estimating busts to around 20 MPH. The seeing seemed to be stable. Between the clouds the air seemed to be clear. Good Transparency Seeing Good
Instruments	Orion 10" equatorial mounted Newtonian reflector - Derek
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Derek Snow Derek had about a half dozen of his friends with him who seem to have a particular penchant for taking flash pictures of everything. The constant blazes of light were very annoying.

Target	Saturn
Constellation
Category
Time	20060427.2215 EDT
Comments	Saturn looked nice and fairly crisp and all magnifications tried. The A, B and C rings were all visible as well as a faint stripe across the disk of the planet.

Target	M44
Constellation
Category
Time	2006 EDT
Comments	The magnification was too much for the object. It looked like a few disembodied stars scattered at the edges of the FOV. These clusters need some empty sky around the edges of the FOV to put them in context.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Lib
Category
Time	20060427.2300 EDT
Comments	There were two moons on each side of the planet in opposite diagonals forming a trapezoid. At the edge of the field was a nearly equally bright background star that everyone kept mistaking for a moon no matter how often they were told it was not one. We tried an orange filter and Derek didn't think it changed things so then tried a green and it increased the contrast in the EBs so that it was easy to see that they were lumpy. But I don't remember seeing any thinner bands out closer to the poles.

Target	M51, Whirlpool Galaxy
Constellation	CVn
Category	Deep Space Object
Time	2006 EDT
Comments	Derek wanted to try to photograph the object even though he could not see it in the eyepiece. He has apparently done this before with this object. It didn't happen last night though. I was not able to verify what stars were in the finder scope. The end of the straight through finder was high enough that you had to stand to see through it but low enough that you could not stand erect.

We had wanted to try for 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 but the clouds kept moving over the area. The printout of the location that Derek had was very different from what Planetarium shows for either the general location of the location of the B component. I need to try to update my elements so I am sure Planetarium is showing me the best location.