21 October 2006

Observing Location	CSP
Observational Period	0430-0800 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 45°F Wind 9 mph Humidity Low Feels Like Chilly NOAA was predicting temperatures in the low 40s with wind in the 20s gusting to 40 but it wasn't that bad. I was dressed for the wind chill to be down around freezing so it was probably colder than it felt to be to me. Transparency Excellent Seeing I
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular - Charlie takahashi 22x60 binocular - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binocular - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target Saturn Constellation Leo Category Planet Time 20061021.0440 EDT Comments I didn’t realize Saturn was down in Leo although it is probably noted on one of my calendars somewhere. I thought I had read somewhere that it was in Gemini. Peter pointed it out and it definitely was not a small round star when I got it in the binocular.

Target The Belt of Orion, C70 Constellation Ori Category Asterism Time 20061021.0445 EDT Comments I could see many more stars than usual between and around Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. There are a couple of objects shown in CDC in the belt, among them Colinder 70 centered on Alnilam in the center of the Belt.

Target The Sword of Orion, M42 Constellation Ori Category Asterism Time 20061021.0445 EDT Comments There was lots of nebulosity around M42 and lots of stars in the general area. I didn’t take time to study it in depth since I was supposed to be looking for meteors and didn’t want to limit my view to what I could see in the binocular.

Naked-eye Limiting Magnitude I was starting to feel a little guilty about just sitting there waiting for meteors so started looking to see what stars I could are. I can't use the lod feature of Planetarium because of the digitizer problems with my Palm so this list is from memory. North 3.96 East 4.41 Zenith West South 4.8 Constellation Object Mag. Alt. Seen Mon ε Mon 4.39 53.49° X CMi Procyon α CMi 0.40 48.33° X CMi Gomeisa β CMi 2.89 52.44° X Gem Castor α Gem 1.58 69.48° X Gem τ Gem 4.41 72.53° X Gem θ Gem 3.60 77.89° X Gem ι Gem 3.78 68.52° X Gem Mebsuta ε Gem 3.06 72.11° X Gem Tejat Posterior μ Gem 2.87 71.22° X Gem Propus, η Gem 3.31 71.54° X Gem Alhena γ Gem 1.93 64.45° X Gem Alzirr ξ Gem 3.35 60.33° X Gem λ Gem 3.58 60.75° X Gem Wasat δ Gem 3.50 65.04° X Gem υ Gem 4.06 66.24° X Gem Pollux β Gem 1.16 65.36° X Lyn α Lyn 3.14 50.65° X Lyn 38 Lyn 3.82 52.00° X Lyn HIP44248 3.96 56.87° X UMa κ UMa 3.57 57.24° X UMa Talitha ι UMa 3.12 58.05° X UMa Tania Borealis λ UMa 3.45 43.67° X UMa Tania Australis μ UMa 3.06 42.24° X UMa Alula Borealis ν UMa 3.49 28.51° X UMa Alula Australis ξ UMa 3.79 27.72° X LMi Praecipua LMi 3.79 33.57° X Cnc Asellus Australis δ Cnc 3.94 48.58° X Cnc Altarf β Cnc 3.53 46.66° X Cnc ι Cnc 4.03 54.54° X Ori π5 Ori 3.71 48.70° X Ori π4 Ori 3.68 51.39° X Ori π3 Ori 3.19 52.52° X Ori π2 Ori 4.35 54.37° X Ori μ Ori 4.12 58.87° X Ori χ Ori 4.39 69.43° X Tau Aldeberan α Tau 0.87 59.39° X Tau θ1 Tau 3.84 57.89° X Tau θ Tau 3.40 57.89° X Tau Hayadum I γ Tau 3.65 56.45° X Tau λ Tau 3.41 51.16° X Tau Hyadum II δ1 Tau 3.77 58.43° X Tau δ2 Tau 4.80 58.85° X Tau δ3 Tau 4.30 59.11° X Tau Ain ε Tau 3.53 60.55° X Tau τ Tau 4.27 65.49° X Tau Alnath β Tau 1.65 70.32° X Tau ζ Tau 2.97 69.68° X

Target Orionids Meteors Constellation Category Comets/Asteroids/Meteors Time 20061021.0430 EDT Comments The Orionids Meteors were peaking thud morning. It isn't a terribly active stream with a ZHR of only 20 so was not something I would get out of bed for. But, since I was getting up early to try and spot the last crescent Moon it wasn't a big deal to get up a little earlier and count meteors. The radiant at.0430 EDT was at 63° so the correction factor for atmospheric extinction is only Time Period Meteors 0430-0500 2 0500-0530 1 0560-0600 1 0600-0630 2 I started out looking to the SE but later broadened the scope of my observations to cover NE-E-SW. Almost all of the meteors I saw were near the horizon and were not terribly bright. I didn’t see any meteors passing through Orion and only one that was down near the horizon beneath Orion. I did see one meteor that was fairly bright and golden in color and visible along the handle of the Big Dipper from Megrez down to Alkaid, a distance of 16°. Another very bright, fast, white meteor streaked down through Puppis and I initially interpreted it as other than an Orionid but on checking where the radiant is I decided that it probably was an Orionid. It was probably visible for around 10° but there were no landmarks in that part of the sky for me to use to verify that estimate.

Target Three Leaps of the Gazelle Constellation UMa Category Asterism Time 20061021.0605 EDT Comments I found the Third leap easily and looked up for the Second Leap and eventually found that but it wasn’t until near twilight that I finally found the First Leap.

Target Last Crescent Moon Constellation Vir Category Time 2006 EDT Comments Lunation 1036 Phase Last Crescent Time 20061021.0650 Age 28d23h04m -1d2h14m Elongation 8.70°W % Illuminated 0.6% Alt.: 1.10° Not Seen The sky was very light by the time the Moon was above the buildings and neither Peter nor I were able to locate it.

Target Sunspots Constellation Vir Category Solar Time 20061021.0745 EDT Comments Heliphraphic Latitude (B0) +5.38° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 321.21 ° Position Angle (P) +25.83° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2049 The sun has entered a new Carrington Rotation since the last time I observed. As soon as the Sun was up I could tedll that there were spots there. Peter saw that there were there spots: it wasn't until the Sun was up a way that I was able to are thbe little spot trailing the biggest one.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 1 3 13 Total 1 3 13 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 917 Heliographic Latitude -13° Heliographic Longitude 359° McIntosh System Bxo The Group is a compact cluster of there spots. The darkest spot if trailed by a smaller spot and has a large but fainter spot over it. No pennumbra or void area was detected. [The large scale SOHO photo on Space.com only shows one fairly large spot as of 1500 EDT]

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I was browsing a bookstore shelf last night looking for more books to borrow from the library and saw copies of another 2007 almanac that has more astronomical days in it than the one I already have so I bought a copy of it. One of the things I found was the windchill effect table that I have copied below and which was particularly pertinent right now since today was the first day of the season when NOAA had posted wind chill temperaturera for NYC.

Wind Speed (mph)	Temperature (°F)
Calm	35	30	25	20	15	10	5	0
5	31	25	19	13	7	1	-5	-11
10	27	21	15	9	3	-4	-10	-16
15	25	19	13	6	0	-7	-13	-19
20	24	17	11	4	-2	-9	-15	-22
25	23	16	9	3	-4	-11	-17	-24
30	22	15	8	1	-5	-12	-19	-26
35	21	14	7	0	-7	-14	-21	-27
40	20	13	6	-1	-8	-15	-22	-29
45	19	12	5	-2	-9	-16	-23	-30
50	19	12	4	-3	-10	-17	-24	-31
55	18	11	4	-3	-11	-18	-25	-32
60	17	10	3	-4	-11	-19	-26	-33

Exposed flesh freezes in
30	10	5
minutes

Wind Speed (mph)	Temperature (°F)
Calm	0	-5	-10	-15	-20	-25	-30	-35
5	-11	-16	-22	-28	-34	-40	-46	-52
10	-16	-22	-28	-35	-41	-47	-53	-59
15	-19	-26	-32	-39	-45	-51	-58	-64
20	-22	-29	-35	-42	-48	-55	-61	-68
25	-24	-31	-37	-44	-51	-58	-64	-71
30	-26	-33	-39	-46	-53	-60	-67	-73
35	-27	-34	-41	-48	-55	-62	-69	-76
40	-29	-36	-43	-50	-57	-64	-72	-79
45	-30	-37	-44	-51	-58	-65	-72	-79
50	-31	-38	-45	-52	-60	-67	-74	-81
55	-32	-39	-46	-54	-61	-68	-75	-82
60	-33	-40	-48	-55	-62	-69	-76	-84

I wanted to are this graphically so entered the table into Excel and created two charts.

The first chart has a line for each thermometer temperature agowind how much the effect of wind depresses the apparent temperature.

This chart does the same thing for each wind speed reading aceoff the table. I know there is a relationship there, it is obvious from the graph, but I haven't figured how to out it into words.

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Observing Location	Custer Institute, Southold, Suffolk Co., NY Lat.: 41.052866666667° Long.:-72.4348833333° Custer is in a very dark sky, at least for the northeast, but it does not appear that it will be there for much longer. The road in front of the Institute was busier tonight than it has ever been before and there are lights across the fields behind the Institute where we have not seen them before> It seems that there is more development going on here which will inevitably lead to a brightening of the surrounding sky.
Observational Period	2130-0630 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature Cold Wind Calm with a few gusts Humidity Low Feels Like Cold To was cold with a few gusts of wind. I didn't notice any humidity. Transparency Excellent Seeing I
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular - Charlie Teleport 10" Dobsonisn Reflector - Peter It was nice to see this scope out again. Takahashi 22x60 binocular - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binocular - Peter Pentax 20x60 binocular - Kin 32" DIY Dobsonian reflector this was a huge truss tune telescope. They had it aimed at M57 and you had to climb a ladder to reach the eyepiece. I didn't are them pack it up to take it away but it fits into the back of a cargo van. I saw wheels mounted in the frame the rocker box sits in. It had a GoTo control and TV monitor. ~20" DIY Dobsonian reflector This was another home built scope. It wasn't quite as large as the first one but I suspect you would also need a short ladder to are zenith with it. It was always piinted at a modest angle from the horizon when I saw it. 9.25: Celestron Fork Mounted reflector the owner was explaining that this was his second scope of this model. Because they are production scopes the QC on them is not the greatest and his first scope did not live up to his expectations so he sold it and bought the one we saw which works properly. It is a long focal length scope and had an equally as long dew shield attached. Huge pier mounted binocular telescope there was no one watching thud scope to answer questions so I don't know what the aperture or focal length were. Binocular telescope this was another intended instrument. The aperture was probably in the 3-4 inch range. I thing it had interchangeable eyepieces so I am calling it a telescope. Looking down into the eyepieces it felt like I was looking at a piece of domed glass. It was a little but of a strange cure. Meade 17", pier mounted SCT - Custer When I got to the new dome I found that their old refractor had been replaced with this modern scope. They were trying to get it onto M1 but the GoTo wasn't going where it was supposed to and the nebula was too faint to see in the finder scope so they have up on it and started looking for something else. Then they decided to reboot the software. That if when I have up on this scope.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee Tony Hoffman

Kin and I received an email from Peter in the late afternoon asking if we were interested in and available for our second of what appears to be annual all-nighters at Custer Institute or some other Dark sky location. Kin says the last time we were there was 10-11Sep05. We went to Custer because of uncertainty about when the AAA permit for Silvermine was valid. Kin thought about it s but when he was asked on the way out and said he thought tonight was an AAA night at Silvermine. Silvermine and Cister are about equal in sky darkness, but Silvermine is only half as far away as Custer. On the way back into the City we ran into some clouds and don't know if they just started developing this morning or were here during the night also. So we might have accidentally missed being clouded out.

Peter and I met at his building around 1830 and got a rental car. Just after we finished packing up Peter's wife and daughter were returning from their afternoon out. Peter talks to me about them, and to them about me, so it was nice to meet. While that was going on Kin arrived. Introductions over, we got on the road.

Because I was in Manhattan yesterday and it was going to take over two hours for me to get home to get my gear and get downtown, we decided that we would drive past my house for me to hear up and then leave from there. We also made a quick stop for Kin to get a sandwich before heading out again.

The only mishap along the way this time was a missed turn due to poor signage when trying to get from the Van Wick Expressway onto the Long Island Expressway. Pie drive time drum my house was about two hours. We got there about 30 minutes later than our first estimate, primarily due to our missed turn in queens and an emergency shopping stop along the way.

The Custer Jamboree was being held this weekend, so some of the people there, like Tony, were observing after the Jamboree. I don't think there were any more or fewer observers there as last year. I don't think there were as many people from the public who didn't have any equipment.

I didn't get a lot of good notes on what I saw and when I saw it because I was reluctant to use the PDAs for that purpose. They seemed so bright in that dark environment that I didn't want to turn them on where anyone else could see them. When I did fire one up I tried to move back behind everyone and turn the PDA so it was pointing away from them and only use it long enough to note the object seen and the time. On rare occasions I made some longer notes.

Target Rng Nebula, M57, NGC6720 Constellation Lyr Category DSO: PlN Time 2006e1021 EDT Comments Mt old Nemesis, or one of them anyway. If I didn't are it tonight I was never going to are it. The instrument was the 32" Dob. I climbed the ladder and put my eye to the eyepiece and there, pushing the edges of my FoV was a smoke ring, It was like a Frisbee, with more "mass" at the outside of the disk, the center being filled with smoke that didn't appear to be as "thick:

Target Veil Nebula, , Cygnus Loop, NGC6992, NGC6995 and NGC6960 Constellation Cyg Category DSO: SNR Time 20061021 EDT Comments The Veil Nebula is divided into there parts, each with its own NGC number: NGC6922 and NGC6995 constitute the eastern side of the nebula, while NGC6960 is the western side. I had forgotten about this and did not ask which side of the veil we were seeing or if a nebula filter was being used to enhance the view. The instrument was the ~20" Dob. I saw a streak of Halloween-like cobweb stretching along the right side if the FoV like is spider was living in the eyepiece and had attached her web to the field stop. It appeared to me to have a reddish color. Comparing my memory to the description of the Veil in the Firefly Deep Sky Observer's Guide I think I was seeing the eastern part. But it is possible that both parts were in the FoV and my eye was attracted to the brighter side and that the bright star 52 Cyg was further preventing be from noticing the nebula when I wasn't aware that I should be looking for it in two different locations. The guide devotes one short paragraph to the western part and nearly a page and diagram to the eastern part.

Target M92, NGC6341 Constellation Her Category DSO: GCl Time 20061021 EDT Comments Serb in the 9.25" reflector. A bright central core with resolving stars around the edge. This impression agrees with the DSOG which says that in small scopes the center looks "condensed" and the periphery is "loose. Discovered by Node in 1777; 25,000 LY distant; 80 LY across. A very ancient object."

Target M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, NGC224; M32, NGC221; and M110, NGC205 Constellation And Category DSO: Gal Time 20061021 EDT Comments Observed in Peter's Teleport. I was able to are and identify all there objects without Peter telling me where to look. I had an easier time seeing M110 then M32, probably because it was closer to the edge of the FoV and required more averted vision than M33 which was only !/3 to !/1 way out to the field stop.

Target M33, NGC598 Constellation Tri Category DSO:Gal Time 20061021 EDT Comments Seen in the Teleport. I described it as a large heat cloud with no resolving stars. DSOG says it is the third-largest object in the Local Group; is a loose spiral without much central brightening; and its light spread over more area than twice the angular diameter of the moon.

Target Kemble's Cascade & Ngc1502 Constellation Cam Category Asterism & DSO: Ocl Time 20061021 EDT Comments I could are a lot of stars, and very bright, but only saw the double in NGC1502. The DSOG has a great picture of Kemble's on page 133, which is exactly what I was seeing with the exception of what might be Aurora Borealis at the bottom of the image.

We saw lots of Orionids Meteors tonight and most of them were spectacular. The most spectacular of the spectacular had to be the one at 2221 EDT that I picked up in Perseus and watched it track through zenith and down to Aquila, over half of my visible sky. It was bright and had a long tail.

Another of the more memorable meteors came at 2256 EDT and tracked from Perseus to around Cepheus.

After that I stopped malung notes of the meteors.

Target NGC1528 Constellation Per Category DSO: OCl Time 20061021 EDT Comments This is a cluster just outside of the barn end of the fishhook. I don't remember if I have seen it in my own optics before from TotL or if it had always been in Peter's binoculars and/or Harry. (I asked Peter on the way home why he named the scope Harry and learned that it was after the last name of the hit who cut the mirror he used in it). Anyway, the cluster is a loose circular arrangement of faint stars that I saw as a pronounced smudge. While I was in the neighborhood I searched the bottom of the fishhook for other clusters but didn't find any if them.

Target NGC1857 Constellation Aur Category DSO: OCl Time 20061021.2251 EDT Comments A large, loose, roughly rectangular grouping of stars beneath the paired Kids.

Target Caroline's Cluster, NGC2360 Constellation CMa Category DSO: OCl Time 20061022.0006 EDT Comments We saw this object in the Teleport but I didn't make any notes about it. I know its common name and exactly when I saw it, but I can't find it by that name in any if my resources so don't know where it if or what it was that we saw. It is an Ocl named after Caroline Herschel.

Target Pleiades Nebula Constellation Tau Category DSO: Time 20061022 EDT Comments Peter thought we might be able to see the nebulosity around the Pleiades and put his optics on it. He and Peter thought they saw it but although I did see some haze around the brightest stars it did not give me the impression of nebulosity. It looked more like light flare to me. We went over to the 20" Dob and asked them to show us the Pleiades and peter saw the nebulority there but the others there felt, like me, that it was not really nebulosity but rather flare. Peter feels that it must be nebulority because he saw the same thing in all the optics he used and both he and Kin described it the same. I don't see faint stuff as well as he does and still hold that I did not see nebulority there. I am not denying that it may exist and that others may see it; just saying that on this occasion I did not see anything that I interpreted as nebulosity. I found this description of the object on a Web page hosted at Oberlin University: The Pleiades nebula is a reflection nebula -- it glows with light scattered from nearby stars. In this case the stars are actually embedded within the nebula. The scattered light is blue for the same reason the sky is blue: blue light is scattered more than red light.

Target M42, Orion Nebula Constellation Ori Category DSO: Time 20061022 EDT Comments We looked at M42 in the ~20" Dob and I saw more nebulosity there than I have ever seen before. Peter wanted to know if I could see M43 and I didn't know. I have more trouble telling where M42 ends and M43 befins than I do what constitures the Trapezium in my binocular. I have not found a good map that delineates the two nebulae, probably because they merge. What I saw in the eyepiece was a gray cloud shaped like a backward J with stars in the inside of the J, in the fish mouth. Orion was still low on the horizon and the telescope owner wasn't happy about pointing the scope tthat low saying that his colimation was now shot, so I didn't spend a lot of time at the eyepiece to discuss it.

I had been up since Friday morning so went back to the car to take a short nap at this point. That short nap ended up being a lot longer than intended. I set my alarm for one hour but the seats of a PT Cruiser were not designed for sleeping and when the alarm went off I hadn't fallen asleep yet. When I woke up at 0300 we were the only ones left.

Target M67, NGC2682 Constellation Cnc Category DSO: OCl Time 20061022.0458 EDT Comments I didn't make notes on this object so am assuming we saw it in the Teleport although it can be seen in binoculars.

Target M44 and M35 Naked Eye Constellation Cnc & Gem Category DSO Time 20061022.0510 EDT Comments Peter Asked if I could are M44 naked eye and I could. I then looked for M35 and could are a faint smudge above the end of Castor's foot.

Target τ CMa Cluster, NGC2362 Constellation CMa Category DSO: Time 20061022.0525 EDT Comments I saw a generalized glow between τ CMa and 29 CMa.

Target Regulis, α Leo Constellation Leo Category Double Star Time 20061022.0537 EDT Comments I noticed in Planetarium that there was a double star symbol over Regulis so decided to check it out. I was surprised to find a very faint star Sr 12:00 to Regulis. Going back to Planetarium I found the magnitude of Regulis to be 1.4 and that of the secondary 7.9. Their separation is 176". If they had been much closer together the secondary probably would have been overpowered by Regulis in my binocular. I was looking in the Sickle asterism of Leo about this time and detected a Mag 5.68 star, HIP49220. That is the faintest star I have ever seen and known about it and validates Peter’s feeling that we had a Mag 6 sky.