17 July 2006

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2030-2345 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Hot, still 90F at 2030 EDT, humid, hazy, and scattered cirrus. There was a nice breeze but it was blowing hot air around. There weren't many mosquitoes tonight because of the breeze. I tried out my citronella candle tonight and I think all the fragrance has dissipated over the years since I bought it, probably in the 80s. This afternoon I got a bottle of insect repellant that doesn't contain DEET. I also got a bottle of generic Benedryl gel to use when I do get bitten. I am not happy thinking about having either of them on my hands and then touching my equipment or eyes. But I am equally unhappy about itching for days after I get bitten. Through nautical twilight the sky had a mottled gray appearance. The temperature had dropped a little by the time we were ready to leave but the humidity had climbed a lot. It was very oppressive and I really wasn't sorry when peter said he wanted to head home early because of an early business appointment tomorrow. Everything felt clammy. The breeze was stiff enough that the mosquitoes weren't much of a problem tonight until near the end. I had the citronella candle with me tonight so gave it a try at the end of the session when the session was drawing to an end. There was no odor of citronella but it is surprising how bright the light of a single candle is in a fairly dark sky. Time Temp °F Wind MPH / Dir / Gust Sky 1951 90 5 / Var / -- Clear 2051 89 7 / W / -- Clear 2151 89 5 / Var / -- Clear 2251 87 5 / SW / -- Clear 2351 86 7 / Var / -- Clear 0051 85 5 / Var / -- Clear Transparency Poor Seeing Poor
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular - Charlie Takahashi 22x60 binocular - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planet
Time	20060717.20:38 EDT
Comments	My first impression was that there was one moon trailing the planet, one right on the leading limb and two more farther out to the west. Then I decided that the hard-to-see moon was on the trailing limb between the easily seen moon and the planet. I should have stayed with my first impression which was right. Ganymede was getting ready to start a pass behind the planet and disappeared to my view before it got dark. Planetarium doesn’t tell you when a planet is going to transit and when it is going to be eclipsed. It appears that when the moon is on the right of the planet it is about to be eclipsed while it will transit if it is to the left of the planet.

I had a bunch of more notes all ready to be posted but lost them while editing them on my PDA.

I remember that we looked at the Coathanger for a while and tried to see how deeply we could see.

I didn’t think I would see it but found the Baby Scorpion again.

We looked at some deep sky objects in Peter’s binocular some of which only Peter saw.

Peter had an early day today and we were both feeling tired, probably due to the heat and humidity, so we made it an early night.