8 November 2006

To paraphrase Dante, and out him to a different purpose: Abandon hope all year who live about here Or, changing a few of the immortal words in W.C. Fields' mouth: It's not a fit afternoon out for telescope or binocular.

Observing Location	Cyberspace, SIBL, NYPL, New York, NY
Observational Period	1300-1930 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Overcast Temperature 50s Wind Light Breeze Humidity 100% Feels Like A Monsoon I knew requesting an observing permit and finishing construction of my solar filter would be the kiss of death for this event, but I did both of them anyway. Transparency Opaque seeing
Instruments	Toshiba Protege 3505 Tablet PC w/T1 Internet connection - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Transit of Mercury Constellation Lib Category Eclipse/Occultation/Transit Time 20061108.1410 EDT Comments Timeline Event Estimated Time1 Altitude Observed Time C I 1912:20 UTC 23° C II 1914:13 UTC 22° Greatest Transit 2140:50 UTC 0° 1 NASA What was the first question the kids asked the NASA scientists on the transit WebCast? Why do they say Pluto isn't a planet anymore? I am watching the transit on the SOHO MDI images. I was surprised that the planet did not appear in them until three hours after the transit had started here. I know SOHO is located at Lagrangian point L1, which I thought was between earth and the sun, but since there was the time displacement I wasn't sure and had to look it up. Wikipedia says L1 is the Lagrangian point located approximately 1,500,000 km towards the Sun away from the Earth and provides this diagram of the various Lagrangian points. So if SOHO is between us and earth why does its transit begin three hours after mine. It must be because it is so much closer to the sun and the geometry is different. Press NASA WebCast Space.com on 2Nov06 Space.com on 3Nov06 SpaceRef.com story on 6Nov06 Another SpaceRef.com story on 6Nov06 BBC story on 7Nov06 BBC review of the event NASA US Naval Observatory Meade Transit Simulation Edmund Halley's description of the 1716 transit of Mercury, viewed from the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, where Napoleon Boneparte died in prison in 1821. While I was making my observations in the island of St. Helena, about 40 years since, on the stars round the south pole, I happened to observe, with the utmost care, Mercury passing over the sun's disk: and contrary to expectation, I very accurately obtained, with a good 24-foot telescope, the very moment in which Mercury, entering the sun's limb, seemed to touch it internally, as also that of his going off; forming an angle of internal contact. Hence I discovered the precise quantity of time the whole body of Mercury had then appeared within the sun's disk, and that without an error of one single second of time; for, the thread of solar light, intercepted between the obscure limb of the planet, and the bright limb of the sun, though exceedingly slender, affected my sight, and in the twinkling of an eye, both the indenture made on the sun's limb by Mercury entering into it, vanished, and that made by his going off, appeared. On observing this I immediately concluded, that the sun's parallax might be duly determined by such observations, if Mercury, being nearer the earth, had a greater parallax, when seen from the sun; for, this difference of parallaxes is so very inconsiderable, as to be always less than the sun's parallax, which is sought; consequently, though Mercury is to be frequently seen within the sun's disk; he will scarcely be fit for the present purpose.

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I spent some time reading the December 2006 issue of Sky and Telescope today and found product reviews for a some new products.

• Bigha StarSeeker
  from a review in the Dec06 S&T

  This is a fancy deck chair with a support for a small, light binocular, for only $2000. I exaggerate a bit; the actual price is only $1950.

  There is a motorized base to rotate the chair (17#), a modified Travel Chair Lounge Lizard (24#) and a motor canister with rechargeable battery (4#). The batteries in the review's chair lasted 3-4 evenings. I suspect they will last longer after the novelty of the chair wears off. Anyway, you the base in one hand and the chair in the other. So where do I carry the motor canister, binoculars and the rest of the stuff I need to observe. Sounds great for observing in the back yard, or if you happen to have a car, but not for the #6 train.

  There is a green laser pointer permanently mounted to the binocular support so you can get yourself into the observing neighborhood.

  You recline the chair the way you do most deck chairs, manually by pressing against it with your legs and back and holding onto the arm rests. You point in azimuth by activating the motor with the same switch you use to activate the laser pointer.

  Binocular weight seems to be critical, but not for the reason I expected. There is an adjustable counterweight that is good for binoculars up to 6.6#. The reviewer used it with heavier binoculars by adding an additional 5# counterweight which held the binocular fine, but the center of balance of the chair was upset and it fell over backward. So while you need IS at higher magnifications the chair can’t take the weight involved. Maybe adding a similar 5# weight at the foot of the chair would solve the problem, but now the chair weighs 55# instead of 45#.

• I found a brief announcement in S&T for a new trussless open tube telescope from Lazzarotti Optics in Italy. It is even more minimalist than my Coulter CT-100. I could see something like this being a replacement for SAR if I had the $5k purchase price. http://www.unitronitalia.it/ and click on the Lazzarotti link.
• I bought my S&T Pocket Star Atlas the other day and I am seeing things in it that I have never noticed in Planetarium. It is a very different way of seeing. The things that it will not do are to give me information on the object and when it is above the horizon. There is a place for both ways of navigating the night sky.

  Now I see an ad for another atlas that I have to check out. They have just released the Binocular Highlights. It is a similar format to the Pocket Sky Atlas and has a dark background star map for each of 99 objects then a large white area filled with descriptive material. It says that most of the objects should be visible even in light-polluted city skies. It is $24.95 but you can get it from Amazon.com for $16.47; ISBN 1931559430.