7 September 2006

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1000-1015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Mild; still air; light haze; good viewing. Transparency Good Seeing Good
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Leo Category Solar Time 20060907.1000 EDT Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +7.25° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 182.84° Position Angle (P) +22.53° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2047 It says something about how active the sun is that the group that is just returning to the near side of the sun after spending nearly two weeks on the away side is 904 and the new group just forming is only 908. 904 Heliographic Latitude -15° Heliographic Longitude -129° McIntosh System Crx This spot appears larger and elongated parallel to the Sun's equator. I can see a penumbra around that looks irregular in shape. 908 Heliographic Latitude -16° Heliographic Longitude 156° McIntosh System Cxi This is a large group composed of small spots that is about half way to the meridian. The largest spot of the group is right in the center of the group. It is preceded by two faint p-spots and trailed by one d-spot. I don't see penumbra around the spots but the main spot and the p-spots appear to be surrounded by a common void area.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 2 5 25 Total 2 5 25 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

This post was spell checked and posted from Microsoft Live Writer (beta) as a further test to see how it reacts to the hard coded HTML from the macros on my PDA and how Blogger likes what Live Writer passes to it.

The post looks fine but the code is not segmented the way I like to see it so I can edit it in Notepad. Everything is run together in one long paragraph that conserves server space and transfer time. It will be all right if I only intend to edit the posts in Live Writer.

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I was trying to get a handle on libration and figure whether to moon is tipped so that Mare Orientale is visible. Sky & Telescope used to have an article on their web site with a calculator or at least a list of dates when libration would be favorable for observing Mare Orientale but it appears to be gone now. I was able to get some information out of the DOS program Moon Calculator 6.0, but I don't know how to interpret it.

Libration Latitude	1.358
Libration Longitude	0.585
Selen Sun Latitude	0.300
Selen Sun Longitude	355.242
Selen Sun Colongitude	94.758
Position Angle of Axis	338.336
Parallactic Angle	329.315
Bright Limb Angle	81.318

Popular Astronomy, January 1997, had this to say about Mare Orientale in an article entitled "Enjoy those good librations".

A splendid lunar feature named Mare Orientale (the Eastern Sea) is perhaps the most famous of the Moon's libration features. At a favourable libration the formation may be discerned in binoculars, making a recognisable "dent" on the edge of the Moon.

I think that dent is what I was seeing.

In the course of my research I found that libration comes from libra, to balance in Greek. Libra was also the name for the pound and that is why it is abbreviated lb.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2000-0030 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Conditions were not great lady night but that was anticipated and, since the only target was the Moon, was not expected to be a problem. The sky was rather milky with the full moon lighting up all the haze. There was a little chill in the air. I think CSC got it right tonight. The mosquitoes were active. Transparency Poor Seeing Good
Instruments	SAR - Coulter CT-100 - Charlie When we were ready to break down tonight I asked Peter to out my Barlow into his scope and are what his feelings were about it. He said it looked fine to him and that if he weren't told he wouldn't be able to tell if he were looking through by Celestron and his Tele Vue. There was no chromatic aberration present. It would probably be a good idea to compare them again when the terminator is more prominent to are how the contrast is. Takshaschi 102 refractor -Peter Yukon 6-100x100 Angled Eyepiece. Spotting Scope - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee Chana Finkelstein

Target Jupiter Constellation Lib Category Planet Time 20060907.2015 EDT Comments There were only two moons visible, the other two being in transit. If Jup on my Palm can be trusted, there was also a double shadow transit in progress.

Target Cosmos 1674 Constellation CrB Category Satellite Time 20060907.2027 EDT Comments I Judy happened to be scanning the SW sky in CrB ehen this satellite came into view. It was like an Iridium Flare getting bright quickly and then fading from view.

Target Moon Constellation Category Lunar Time 20060907.2130 EDT Comments It appears that I did not see Mare Orientale in my binocular last night. I don’t know what it was that I was seeing down in that corner of the Moon. It wasn’t visible tonight so couldn’t have been visible last night when the terminator was on that side of the Moon. We saw Humboldt which is a libration feature up near Mare Vendelinus. I saw tow close craters on the floor of Mare Fecunditatis that had a ray coming off of one of them making it look like a comet which turned out to be Messier and Messier A.