18 October 2006

Observing Location	Bryant Park
Observational Period	1700 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature Warm Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Indian Summer This morning NOAA said it would be partly cloudy in the afternoon so I took my compact binocular with me when I went downtown expecting to check on the Sun before my meeting. When I went downtown shortly before noon it was totally overcast. The sub was visible behind the clouds but they were not thin enough to contemplate trying to look for sunspots through them. From the subway bridge over The Bronx River I could see billowing cumulus clouds embedded in stratus all around me. It did clear off by time for me to go to my meeting and I had hopes of seeing the sub but unfortunately it had already set behind the tall buildings surrounding the park. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2100-2215 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Overcast Temperature 63°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Very Comfortable When I left my meeting and headed to dinner it was broken clouds (=>50% and <90%). By the time I got out of dinner it was 99.44% overcast. CSC said it would be clear with at least average transparency so I had said I was going to TotL and Kin said he might stop by, so I took a bus up and walked into the park. My amateur radio net was tonight and I needed to hang out in Manhattan for that since I wouldn't make it home in time, and the temperature was really pleasant for sitting out in the park anyway. We hung out for a while and rode Kin's scooter around the park but the clouds never broke up or even thinned out. Sometimes we could see airplane headlights through the clouds but mostly we heard them. This is one of those nights when CSC was predicting weather for a planet (if we can use that term to refer to a round celestial body that has cleared its orbit but orbits around a star other than our star) in a galaxy far, far away. Transparency Opaque Seeing
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular - Charlie Audubon 6x16 monocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

Target Mirfak (I think) Constellation Per Category Miracle Time 20061018.2150 EDT Comments I was watching a tiny patch of sky where there was no cloud as it drifted across the sky. When it got over to where Perseus should have been it passed in front of a bright star that could only have been Mirfak. That was the only celestial body seen tonight.

I spent a little bit of time thinking about where the constellations would be behind all the clouds.

I checked the weather forecast and now it looks like I am not going to see either the insurance old crescent Moon I had planned to observe on Friday morning or the last crescent Moon and Orionids meteors Peter and I had planned to observe on Saturday.