15 June 2006

Observing Location	TotL Peter was setting up behind ball field 6 when I arrived to get the best angle on Mercury, Mars and Saturn. I set up my equipment then carried the tripod and binocular down to ball field 4 to observe the sun. The early evening was spent at ball field 6 but when Mars and Saturn were getting low on the trees we moved over to TotL proper and spent the rest of the night there.
Observational Period	1945-0102 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	CSC said it was going to be clear with average or better than average transparency. They lied. It was warm with a slight breeze. Broken clouds, mainly in the S-W-N. The clouds became dense at times and obscured most of the sky. Early on I commented that the sky to the north looked like impending rain and we did get some although it was mostly virga. The drops we felt were few and far between and not enough to even find where they had hit the pavement. About that time Peter was commenting about the dirt the wind was picking up from the ball field infields. The sky was looking very bad and we were about to pack up but it started to clear before we started packing. The atmosphere was not stable. There were waves of atmosphere rolling across the planets and dim stars were coming and going. Transparency Poor to Good Seeing Fair
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular – Charlie Twice tonight I found that one leg of my tripod was slipping down. The last time I noticed this the broken segment has almost totally collapsed. I don’t know if I just need to crank more on the lock or if I have a real problem. I will have to watch this. Takahashi 102 refractor - Peter Fujinon 10x50 binocular - Peter Celestron 10x50 binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee

Tonight was another good public interaction night early on. Setting up the optics during the daytime always seems to draw a crowd even if there is nothing to be seen. After it got dark we didn't have as many people stop by.

Peter and I made naked-eye star counts in UMi twice tonight. The first time was right after we moved to TotL when I counted around eight stars. At the end of the night we counted again and saw 12 stars.

Target	Sunspots
Constellation	Tau
Category	Solar
Time	20060615.1945 EDT
Comments	The sun was already behind the trees from the NE corner of the Lawn when I arrived. I had to move down to ball field 4 to get a partial view through trees or the backstop and clouds. I the time I was able to see the lower limb I wasn't able to identify any spots or plage.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planet
Time	20060615.2034 EDT
Comments	Jupiter was seen naked-eye by a passer by while we were looking for Mercury in the binoculars. Three moons out on the leading edge, Io in eclipse. At 2219 EDT Kin spotted the shadow of Ganynede in transit near the south pole. At 2254 EDT it was egressing.

Target	Mercury
Constellation	Gem
Category	Planet
Time	20060615.2050 EDT
Comments	Peter spotted Mercury first in the binocular and then naked-eye. After I knew roughly where it was it was easy for me to get it in the binocular and then by sighting over it to locate it naked-eye. It was not big enough for me to detect any phase in my binocular and I don't remember seeing it in Peter's scope.

Target	Saturn, Mars & M44
Constellation	Cnc
Category	Planet and Deep Sky Object
Time	20060615.2108 EDT
Comments	I picked up Mars and Saturn naked eye in a gap in the cloud. After a while M44 started to become visible. M44 looked like a Gila monster with Mars near the center of its body. Mars appeared about four times as large as the stars of M44, and Saturn 2-3 times as large as Mars. Mars was a bright orange and the stars of M44 a much fainter white. Mars has moved closer to Saturn and now the two of them, M44 and δ Cnc can comfortably be seen in the same FOV. You can even add in γ Cnc without too much trouble. Yesterday I had anticipated not being able to see this event at all, and indeed we did have difficulty most of the time, so checked my planetarium programs to see what I was going to be missing. As long as I have saved and uploaded the images I migiht as well include them here. Cartes du Ciel is a great program, but I don't know who to take advantage of everything it can do. I am supposed to be able to bring up images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey but I haven't figured that out yet. I am stuck with big gray blobs or green circles for my nebulae. Carted du Ciel graphic C2A gives you a lot of graphical indications about the stars you are seeing. I just got the program recently so haven't figured it out yet. C2A graphic WinStars has a pretty realistic view of the sky. I tweaked this image in Photoshop which replaced the gray sky with a black one so it is easier to see things. They build in atmospheric effects. But Saturn shows up as a haze, like a DSO, rather than the big, well defined light source I see in my optics. WinStars graphic Although it doesn't include the atmospheric effects like WinStars I think Stellarium has the most realistic view, at least what I would expect to see in my binocular or telescope, of all the programs I tried. Stellarium graphic

Target	Cosmos 2263 Rocket
Constellation
Category	Satellite
Time	20060615.2324 EDT
Comments	Kin picked up a satellite passing near the zenith on a north to south trajectory just before the Iridium flare. It appears to have been the Cosmos 2263 Rocket at Mag 3.4.

Target	Iridium 10 Flare
Constellation	Vir
Category	Satellite
Time	20060615.2325 EDT
Comments	Mag -7. It was visible for a long time. When it flared it got large and very bright. This was the last of three bright flares visible tonight and the only one that was observed. The first was clouded out. During the second we were observing the shadow transit on Jupiter.

Target	M80, NGC6093!
Constellation	Sco
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060615.2345 EDT
Comments	I could not see it in my binocular but did see it when Peter got it in his scope.. He says that it is considerably larger than Jupiter but it did not appear so to me. I am not good at estimating angular size and comparing two different views makes it all the harder. I would need a reticle to take measurements. Peter also sees deeper than I do so was undoubtedly seeing more of the cluster at the edges than I can. Jupiter is much brighter and appears to be solid so there isn't any question about where it ends.

Target	ISS visible Pass
Constellation	Cas-And
Category	Satellite
Time	20060615.2354 EDT
Comments	Mag 1.9. The Station became visible low on the horizon, ~19° and I tracked all the way until it disappeared in the trees over the PD parking lot. It was supposed to have come from the shadow near Ruchbah at 17° but I first saw it over near Segin.

Target	C13, NGC457, Owl Cluster
Constellation	Cas
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060616.0015 EDT
Comments	The cluster is around 34 Csd which is a moderately wide double star. The double represents the eyes of the owl. I saw rhe eyes and a twinkling above them.

Target	M7, NGC6475, Ptolemy's Cluster
Constellation	Sco
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060616.0060 EDT
Comments	In the scope Big bright open cluster with. A good range of brightness and subtle color differences.

Target	M6
Constellation	Sco
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060616.0025 EDT
Comments	In the scope Fewer bright stars and lots more stardust than in M6.

Target	M103, NGC591
Constellation	Cas
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060616.0025 EDT
Comments	Peter says it should be easy in the binocular. I was definately on it and all I saw was a string of three stars, the center one faintest. Peter called it the slipper. He confirmed it.. Not very impressive in the binocular but maybe it will look better later in the year when it is higher in the sky.

Target	NGC663, C10
Constellation	Cas
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060616.0040 EDT
Comments	There is an arc of four stars, three in a fairly straight line and the last dog-legging down, to the west of Ruchbah. NGC663 forms a right triangle with the two central stars of the arc. I picked out about four twinkling stars in two pairs.

Target	NGC6321
Constellation	Sco
Category	Deep Sky Object
Time	20060616.0045 EDT
Comments	The sky was fairly clear and we were able to see the μ Sco double over the top of CitiCorp, the lights having been turned off so peter wanted to give this on a try. He says it is one of his favorite clusters and it has a very short window of visibility from here because it is so far south. It is culminating around midnight now. It is a small open cluster. I resolved about 6 stars in the scope. There is a wide double below it. I don't find it in any or my Planetarium catalogs to try to get back to it, but it is too small to see in my optics anyway. Maybe I would see a smudge there.

We had a police car drive by around midnight and they were wanting to know what was good tonight and Web addresses for sights to find out what is out on a given night. They told us to be safe when they left. Later another pair drove up and stopped. They told us that the park closes at 0100 and it was now 0102 and we could be summonsed for being there that late. This is the first time we have been kicked out for breaking curfew in a long time. Normally we are already breaking down by then and leave the park around 0100 EDT! But never see a police car. And the last time we were out I even asked the officer who hung out with us if we would have problems and he said he didn't think so. It is a little ironic that Peter had said earlier that he planned to pack up around 0030 EDT and the sky was good so that didn't happen, Peter is wondering if we would be less bothered if we moved back to TOP. His hypothesis is that when the cars are coming back to the precinct they drive around the top of the Lawn more than the bottom and are obligated to chase us out if they have to drive past us. The car that stopped did not go down to TPO where a bunch of college kids was partying. We could still hear them when we left near 0130 EDT. This might be something to consider. Shakespeare in the Park has started up and we would definitely have a lot more public interaction when it lets out. But the skyline down there is higher and we wouldn’t have the great view of the Manhattan skyline to appreciate when it is cloudy as it was most of the night tonight.