8 August 2006

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2115-0015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Very mild and not too humid, occasional light breezes. At midnight it was looking very nice to the north but the sprinklers right inside the fence came on with a vengeance and the breeze was blowing out of the south so I packed up and spent a couple minutes just looking at all the little white dots before leaving. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 - Charlie I don’t know what has happened to SAR but the image is worse now than when I first got it. The stars all have four or five tails on the left side and there is a lot of ghosting on the left side of Jupiter and the Moon. Celestron 7x50 binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

Target	NGC6231, Baby Scorpion, Table of Scorpius, C76
Constellation	Sco
Category	DSO
Time	20060808.2135 EDT
Comments	I could see ε Sco so inferred based on recent experience, that the Baby Scorpion would be visible just to the right of Citicorp and easily found it there. The views weren't that great but Kin and I both counted five bright stars. I didn't see the nearby twinkling stars either at 23x or 46x.

Target	Jupiter
Constellation	Vir
Category	Planet
Time	20060808.2125 EDT
Comments	Io os near the eastern limb where I can't see it in the flare. The other moons are lined up to the west.

Target	Moon
Constellation	Cap
Category	Lunar
Time	20060808.2139 EDT
Comments	I had hoped to see some detail on the Moon with the Barlow but the light was very flat and there wasn't enough contrast to see much. While the Moon was rising from behind the tree I could see the image of my secondary where points of light were coming through the leaves. The Moon appears to be full even in the telescope but when you look closely at the eastern limb you can see that it is slightly irregular particularly between Gassendi and Aristarchus. The Moon is in the middle of Capricornus and close to Neptune but it is so bright that it is blowing out all but the brightest nearby stars. Stars visible within 2.25° are Star Mag. η Cap 4.82 χ Cap 5.30 27 Cap 6.25 HIP 14204 6.54

Target	Kemble's Cascade & NGC1502
Constellation	Cam
Category	Asterism
Time	20060808.2300 EDT
Comments	I could see the stars at the top of the cascade but couldn't follow it down very far. Kemble's Cascade is located along the line from β Cas to ε Cas extended that distance again and along a line from Algol through Mirfak and extended about 1.5 times or at the intersection of these two lines. Tonight I found it by hopping from the top of the steeple of the Per, η Per. Cartes du Ciel graphic

Target	Neptune
Constellation	Cap
Category	Planet
Time	20060808.2344 EDT
Comments	I was surprised that I found it this close to the 99% illuminated Moon. Very faint but in the right spot and about the right brightness relative to nearby stars.