30 April 2006

Location:	City Hall Park and South Street Seaport
Time:	1525-1615 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions:	sunny but cool; little wind Transparency Excellent Seeing good
Instruments:	Canon 15x50 IS Binocular with Baader AstroSolar film filter - Charlie
Observing Party:	Charlie Ridgway

Target:	Sunspots
Constellation:	Ari
Category:	solar
Time:	20060430.1525 EDT
Comments:	There is a small spot that appeared near 11:00 which makes it hard for me to understand how the other spots are supposed to be in the northern hemisphere. I am going to continue to class them southern hemisphere. Groups Spots R North 1 1 11 South 2 6 26 Total 3 7 37

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Location:	TotL
Time:	2015-0100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions:	Clear and cool. There was a patch of cloud that passed over Times Square and got lit up and while I was looking for Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments:	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector Peter thought the scope was well behaved tonight with most of the stars resolving to points. The red dot finder could be adjusted to point at the same thing the scope was pointed at and whatever I put it on was close to the center of the FOV. I don't know what my problem was last night. The Kite: DIY 6" Newtonian reflector - Peter Pentax binocular- Kin
Observing Party:	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee

Target:	Moon
Constellation:	Tau
Category:	Occultation
Time:	20060430.2015 EDT
Comments:	When I was walking into the park in twilight I could see a star over the dark limb of the Moon. The only other thing I could see at the time was Saturn and I was speculating that the star might actually be Mars. When I was able to see a few more stars it was obvious that the star was beta Tau. In asking Peter about it I had to name four planets before I came up with the name Mars which is what I knew I wanted. The first time I named the planet I don't think I was aware that I had used the wrong name. The next two times I knew it was the wrong name as soon as i heard myself say it. My mind wasn't moving the signal along the correct pathway from my cognitive center to my speech center. My mother did the same thing about the time that I became certain she eas having memory problems. She was a good 30 years older than I am at the time. I dropped the scope onto the Moon just to check the alignment of tke red dot and got a nice view of beta Tau right above it and HIP 24984 which Peter and I were both watching when it was occulted at 2040. We missed seeing it come from behind the moon by a few minutes.

Target:	Saturn
Constellation:	Gem
Category:	Planet
Time:	20060430.2030 EDT
Comments:	I took a quick look at it while Peter was showing it to some passers by. Later I observed it in SAR and again in Peter's scope. In the larger scope I could see separation between the rings and planet and the planet shadow on the rings as well as a faint stripe across the planet.

Target:	Polaris
Constellation:	UMa
Category:	Double Star
Time:	20060430.2100 EDT
Comments:	Peter asked me to look for a double star in his FOV. He was centered on Polaris and I thought I might see a very tight double at the top of the field. He was talking about Polaris so I looked again. Polaris was flaring but looked like there might be a dark bar most of the way across it 2/3 of the way down from top. When he put the 2x Barlow in I could see a dim star close and above Polaris.

Target:	ISS
Category:	Satellite
Time:	20060430.2120 EDT
Comments:	This was supposed to be a 30 second pass low in the north. I had forgotten about it and picked it up by accident as it was passing low over the old police precinct. It continued going farther to the NE than it was supposed to have.

Target:	Jupiter and Zubin Elgenubi
Constellation:	Lib
Category:	Planet and Double Star
Time:	20060430.2155 EDT
Comments:	Zubin Elgenubi is a double star. The dimmer component is the one that is named. Star Mag Zubin Elgenubi α1 Lib 2.75 α2 Lib 5.15 One moon is alone on one side of Jupiter and the remaining three moons are strung out on the other side. A good way over on the side with the three moons are two stars in the same plane as the moons looking like two additional moons.

Target:	M57, The Ring Nebula
Constellation:	Lyr
Category:	Deep Sky Object
Time:	20060501.0030
Comments:	I was not able to hop down to the bottom of the parallelogram although I tried several times. I just couldn't make the observed stars match up to Planetarium. After I had packed up I realized why. I had been trying to hop off of Deneb rather than Vega. We did see the Ring in Peter's scope.

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Summary of Observing Time for the Year to Date:

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	3.50	4	0.88	14.00	6	2.92	21.00	9	3.33
Feb	1.00	1	1.00	10.25	6	1.71	11.25	6	1.88
Mar	3.75	3	1.25	14.00	10	1.40	17.75	13	1.37
Apr	15.25	12	1.27	38.25	13	3.02	54.50	15	3.63
TOTAL	23.50	20	1.18	80.00	35	2.43	104.50	43	2.43