6 November 2006

Observing Location	VP
Observational Period	1200-1215 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Cleat Light Haze Temperature Warm Wind Light Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like Indian Summer Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Lib Category Solar Time 20061106.1200 EST Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +3.80° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 107.34° Position Angle (P) +23.46° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2049 I had hoped that 921 & 922 would hang on through the Mercury transit on Wednesday but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Both spots appear to be dissipating rapidly.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 2 3 23 Total 2 3 23 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 921 Heliographic Latitude -12° Heliographic Longitude 158° Mcintosh System Cso This group is reduced to two widely spaced spots. They appear smaller to me than they have previously. Group 922 Heliographic Latitude -16° Heliographic Longitude 134° Mcintosh System Axx There is only one spot left in this group. It is still large and black.

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Observing Location	Battery Park
Observational Period	1430-1445 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Hazy Temperature Mild Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Very Pleasant Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Vir Category Solar Time 20061106.1430 EST Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +3.79° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 105.96° Position Angle (P) +23.44° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2049 The Sun is unchanged since noon except for the orientation of the spots.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 2 3 23 Total 2 3 23 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 921 Heliographic Latitude -12° Heliographic Longitude 157° Mcintosh System Cso These spots are very dark and stand out nicely against the Sun's disk. Group 922 Heliographic Latitude -16° Heliographic Longitude 143° Mcintosh System Axx This spot looks like what I expect Mercury to look like during the transit on Wednesday. It is small and looks fairly round.

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I went down to Wagner Park in Battery Park City this afternoon and sat there reading waiting for the sun to set. Unfortunately it set into clouds about 10 minutes before it reached the horizon, but I think my assessment that it will set behind Ellis Island is correct and that either farther north of there or down in Battery Park will provide longer views. But if it is this cloudy tomorrow the elevation of the horizon will be irrelevant.

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Observing Location	Cemtral Park South @ 6 Ave, New York, NY
Observational Period	2030-2215 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Overcast Temperature Cool Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like Cool It was cloudy and there was a big halo around the Moon again tonight. The views were soft. Transparency Poor Seeing II
Instruments
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

This afternoon I picked up a Celestron 2” Universal Digital Camera Adapter at Adorama. This thing is a monster and I have been thinking that I should exchange it for the smaller size, but I need it this big to fit over the binocular eyepiece. It is big enough to accommodate the barrel of a 2” telescope lens. But I am not sure there is enough lateral adjustment to get my camera lens into the center of the binocular/telescope optical axis. It is making pictures though. I don’t think I will be ready to use it for the Mercury Transit on Wednesday though.

I met Peter tonight where he does some sidewalk observing on the South end of Central Park when he doesn't want to lig his hear all the way up to TotL. We both have new cameras and mounts and are trying to figure out how to use them so spent the time making pictures. The sky was very hazy and the pictures in both cameras were looking a little soft.

This image has been cropped and resized but is otherwise untouched.

Here is the same picture after going through Photoshop Elements. I don't really know a lot about Photoshop but have applied a 300% unsharp mask with radius of 5 pixels and a threshold of 0 levels; and increased the brightness by -12 units and increased contrast by +11 units.

And here is the Mare Crissium area of the modifid image at full size.

At the end of the night I took a picture of the top of the Bloomberg building. The top five floors or so are illuminated white glass with dark mullions between then. I thought it would be a better focus test since there is less atmosphere between us and it than between us and the Moon. The camera’s focus was not perfect, but it was close.

Target Moon Constellation Category Lunar Time 2006 EST Comments Lunation 1037 Phase Waning Gibbous Age 15d20h15m Elongation 158.72°W % Illuminated 96.6% Magnitude -12.3 Altitude 32.11° I didn’t actually observe the Moon much tonight. We were too busy trying to take pictures of it and the views when I did look were not spectacular.

As of right now it is not looking too good for the Mercury Transit on Wednesday. NOAA is showing the rain likely stopping around noon then the cloud cover decreasing a bit but I suspect there will still be a bad horizon.

I picked up a sheet of Baader AstroSolar filter film from Peter tonight to finish building the solar filter for SAR. I had built an off axis filter with a piece of scrap film I had laying around but it has never proved satisfactory. I unrolled the film tonight to allow it to relax before mounting it in the cell. In one of my emails to him I told him as sure as I finished building this thing we will have a Nor'easter on Wednesday.