29 August 2006

Observing Location	Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY
Observational Period	2015-2215 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It has been raining off and on all day today. CSC is white through tomorrow night. Transparency None Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye observing - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I don't think we have seen a star -- even our star -- in a week and it doesn't look like we are going to see any any time soon. Tropical Storm Ernesto is supposed to go up the west side of the Appalachian Mountains and we are scheduled for another wet weekend.

Tonight I stopped at Grand Central Terminal to try to make some sense of the sky chart on the ceiling there.

I have always heard that it is a Mediterranean sky for a particular night, but that all the constellations are backwards because it is depicted as though viewed from outer space.

This can not be as constellations would not look the same if viewed from outside of the solar system because all of the stars are at different distances and the side to side spatial relationship would be destroyed from any other perspective but from Earth. That it is a Mediterranean sky is of little consequence as the sky would look the same during that timeframe from any location on Earth at a similar latitude. It appears to be a winter sky though. The portion of the sky displayed matches up with what is in the window of my planisphere when I set it for 2000 EST on 1Dec.

I got a little further in understanding it tonight and think that most of the ceiling is left/right reversed as though seen through a refracting telescope. The exceptions are Orion and possibly Perseus whose stars are as seen from Earth with the naked eye.

I have determined that the best place to view the ceiling to get the eclyptic and celestial equator to mach up with a star chart is from the north wall across from the ticket windows and information boards.

The order of the constellations is reversed. The constellations are laid out on the ceiling in the following order:

N side of building
	Peg		Tri MBr
E	Aqr	Psc	Ari	Tau	Gem	Cnc	W
				Ori
S side of building

The adjacent constellations are on the wrong sided as compared with my guide book. This is consistent however, with the L/R reversal of the pictures and stars that predominates.

The Ecliptic starts out below the celestial equator in Aqr and they cross in Psc then diverge all the way through Cnc. This is as it should be relative to those constellations.

What's Right	What's Wrong
Cancer
There isn't enough to Cnc for me to tell anything about it other than that Gem is on the wrong side of it.
Gemini
	Gemini is L/R reversed, the stars are backwards. The milky way is only depicted going through Castor's foot.
Taurus
The Milky Way passes just above both horns. The ecliptic passes between the horns and above. Aldeberan.	The constellation is L/R reversed in both its depiction and the location of its stars. I can't find the Pleiades.
Orion
Orion is depicted from the back and the stars are in the right locations as viewed from Earth. The club is on the left and the animal skin on the right.	The Milky Way goes through both of his hands and through his head. He is too high in the sky relative to the celestial equator, it passing through his left leg, the tip of his sword and his right foot rather than through his belt. This puts him too close to Tau.
Aries
The constellation rides just above the ecliptic,	but is L/R reversed.
Triangulum
Triangulum is above the shoulders of the ram,	but it is L/R reversed.
Musca Borealis
The Northern Fly is over the rump of Aires	but it is L/R reversed.
Pisces
The ecliptic and celestial equator are correct relative to the cord connecting the fishes.	The constellation is L/R reversed. The trout (skinny fish) is on the left and the bass (fat fish) on the right.
Aquarius
The ecliptic and celestial equator pass through the constellation appropriately.	It is L/R reversed. The jug and flowing water are on the right
Pegasus
	Peg is L/R reversed.
The following constellations are not illustrated with their pictures but all or part of their primary stars can be seen.
Equuleus
The little horse might be there but if it is one star is missing.
Andromeda
The bright chain of stars is there but the ceiling runs our after the first star of the dim chain so the Andromeda Galaxy isn't there either.	The Milky Way is running right through Andromeda There is too much space between Andromeda and Triangulum. The constellation is L/R reversed.
Cetus
Cetus isn't drawn out but I think I see him in reverse below Pisces.
Auriga
Auriga is not depicted. I can see a bright star and the backwards kids next door but the star is not bright enough to be Capella and the kids point the wrong way relative to it. It isn't far enough away from the kids to be ι either.
Perseus
Perseus is not depicted but I can see Mirfac, the Alpha Perseus Association and the fish hook on the left side and what I make to be Algol and ρ on the right so this constellation is not L/R reversed.
Canis Major
I can see two bright stars all by themselves on the other side of the Milky Way from Orion that look like Sirius and the ε star of CMa. There is a small geoup of stars nearby that should be over the dog's back but they are on the wrong side indicating the censtellation is L/R reversed.

Even though you don't have to worry about transparency and seeing this is harder stargazing here than the real thing. Part of that is because everything is reversed and although I have a telescope that requires mental gymnastics I am not seeing whole constellations at a time in it. Another part is the artistic license used in displaying star brightness. I think alpha stars are painted while dimmer (usually) stars are sometimes illuminated with fiber optics.

I need to get back here in the daylight with a camera and high speed film to try and get some better pictures of the ceiling.