2 December 2006

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	0945-1015 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 40s Wind Calm gusting to Light Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like Cool There were a few fair weather cumulus clouds passing through that occasionally passed in front of the Sun. There was a lot of boiling requiring constant focusing at 43x. Little soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that the next might have his turn. A.A. Milne Transparency Good Seeing III
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie Celesteon 20mm Celesteon 2x Barlow SAR, complete with Baader AstroSolar film filter on the Bogen 410 geared tripod head. The front side of my DIY filter cell. The back side of my solar filter showing how it attaches to the telescope. SAR without the shroud over the truss bar. I use a neoprene material for the shroud. Initially I had sewn Velcro tabs to it but the stitching pulled through the neoprene so now I am using the red strap to hold it in place. Here is SAR all broken down into its component parts. The scope, with the exception of the truss bar, fits nicely into a cheap, fabric, insulated lunchbox. There is even a compartment in the top of the box for the eyepieces and red dot finder. Here is the whole solar kit ready to travel.
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Oph Category Solar Time 20061202.0945 EST Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +0.70° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 125.85° Position Angle (P) +15.54° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2050/td> A great looking Sun today. Group 926 is very complex. And now there are spots in both hemispheres. Maybe the new sunspot cycle really is here. SpaceWeather.com says there is even a group 928 but all I see even in the HiRes SOHO image is plage. NASA SOHO image   Groups Spots R North 1 1 11 South 1 8 18 Total 2 9 29 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 926 Heliographic Latitude -9° Heliographic Longitude 157° Mcintosh System Esi A southern hemisphere group. This group has eight spots that I can make out and probably many more that I can't bring into focus and don't have enough magnification to see. There are three main spots. They seen to all by surrounded be penumbra but it is hardest to see on the westernmost spot. There is facula surrounding each of the three groupings of spots and it merges between them making them look like a chain of linked round sausages. Group 927 Heliographic Latitude +5° Heliographic Longitude 123° Mcintosh System Asx A northern hemisphere group. This group is a single spot with penumbra and surrounded by facula.

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Observing Location	VP
Observational Period	1100-1115 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Temperature 40s Wind Light Breeze gusting to Moderate Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like Cool There are a lot more clouds now than there were 45 minutes ago. They are still individual clouds and without convection. The wind has picked up also. Transparency Good Seeing III
Instruments	Nikon CoolPix 990 w/gold shade 14 welder's glass - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

When I went out with SAR I took the camera and 2x Teleconverter with me intending to take some more solargraphs, but I forgot to pick up the welder's glass and didn't think to yet it with the Baader filter. So I went out again and experimented until I ran out of memory.

Target Sun Constellation Oph Category Solar Time 20061202.1100 EST Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +0.70° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 125.71° Position Angle (P) +15.54° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2050 I found that the camera did as well in program mode as when I tried to force the exposure in manual mode. All of these images were made hand held with the camera at maximum digital zoom and using the 2x teleconverter. In this 4x digital zoom picture you can just see the sunspots faintly on the right side of the disk. Increasing brightness by 50 makes the sunspot stand out a bit more. And here I have taken the previous image and increased the contrast a little bit.

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Observing Location	TPO We haven't used TPO as a group in a very long while and I haven't been here myself since the end of summer when we I was displaced from TotL while they were setting up the stage there for a free Metropolitan Opera performance. I had forgotten how bright it is there. There are three closely spaced street lights around us that were always shining in our eyes as we tried to look in the eyepiece. And because the Moon is nearly as high as it gets in the sky right now the bottom of my telescope was pointing at one of the lights all night which allowed light into the tube where the shroud is not sealed at the truss bar. Using a red light to protect my night vision was not necessary. Indeed, using a flashlight to read might not have been necessary. I only saw one Parks vehicle and one police car and am wondering if we could get away with putting towels around the sides of the lamps that face into our observing area while leaving the side facing out toward the main walk unobstructed. We would still have some ambient light reducing our night vision but would not have the in-your-face lighting totally obliterating it. TotL is a better location light-wise but doesn't have as low of a northern horizon.
Observational Period	2030-0130 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Overcast becoming Clear Temperature 30s F Wind Calm gusting to Gentle Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like Cold It looked great out when I left the house but when I got to TPO it was overcast and you couldn't see much but the Moon. Later in the evening it started to break up and it was clear when we left the park. There was a lot of wavering across the Moon and you could see stripes of thicker clouds passing in front of it coming from the SW. Once the sky started to clear the view became more stable. Transparency Good Seeing III - I
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 - Charlie Celestron Omni 20mm Celestron Omni 2x Barlow Takahashi 102 refractor - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binocular - Peter Celestron 7x50 binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee Dominique

I had brought Cherrington along tonight planning to read my way along the terminator again but never got to it. Early on the views were not that great in SAR. It lacked the contrast Peter was getting in his scope and, combined with the intervening clouds, was providing soft views so I was having trouble seeing features. Peter got all packed up and was ready to leave so I had planned to stay and spend some time one-on-one with Cherrington but one of Peter’s friends stopped by so he set up again and we looked at Saturn for a while. All of a sudden it was 0015 EST and I gave up on the Cherrington idea figuring I would pack up and leave with Peter. I don't know what I missed but if the view I had of Copernicus, compared to his description, is any indication, I didn't miss much.

Target Moon Constellation Ari Category Lunar Time 20061202.2030 EST Comments Lunation 1038 Phase waxing gibbous Full -1d23:h56m Age 12d11m2h Elongation 153.45°W % Illuminated 94.8% Magnitude -12.2 Altitude 62.37°

The most remarkable thing about the moon tonight was how high it rose in the sky. It felt like it was at zenith. My farmer's almanac has an article that says we are about in the middle of a three year period of very high moons. This precession of thee lunar orbit's inclination takes 18.61 years to go through one full cycle. When the Moon's inclination is closely aligned with that of Earth we see the Moon rise high in the sky.

Naked-eye the moon looks to be full.

• There were three areas of nice detail on the terminator: Bailly/Schiller, probably Gassendi and possibly Aristarchus.
• I was seeing a large crater in the terminator below Tycho with three craters tangent to its rim on the north and two "craters"(?) on its dark floor -Bailly (Class 5, 200 miles across, 13,800' deep), Bettinus (Class 1, 39 miles across, 12,500’ deep), Kircher (Class 1, 49 miles across, 15,400' deep) and Wilson (Class 1, 45x47 miles across, 12,500' deep). The craters inside Bailly are unidentified in my resources.
• Libration was favorable for the western limb and Peter had me looking at Mare Australe, Mare Undarum and Mare Marginis. Peter calls Mare Undarum a backwards 3 but because of my biology education it reminds me more of a fetus.
• I could see the western wall of Mare Smythii (I think) shining brightly above the grayer floor.

Target Saturn Constellation Leo Category Planet Time 20061202 EST Comments In Sar at 43x it looked pretty nice if I put it in the upper left quadrant of the FoV. It was round with a platter-like ring. In Peter's scope at low power I saw the planet's shadow on the rings and the rings' shadow on the planet.

Target The Pleiades, M45 Constellation Tau Category DSO: OCl Time 20061203 EST Comments I could only see five stars tonight. It was hard to find M45 in the glare of the Moon.

Target M42/m43 Constellation Ori Category DSO: ENeb Time 20061203 EST Comments I could see the Fish Mouth and nebulosity extending down to the three stars below and to the right of the Trapezium. From there I saw a faint wash of light extending up toward M43 and another faint wash extending down from M42, kind of like the outstretched hands of God and Adam in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Target Mintaka Constellation Ori Category Double Star Time 20061203 EST Comments Peter was on M42/M43 and asked if there wasn't a double star in the Belt of Orion. I was able to immediately answer that it was Mintaka which he subsequently got in his scope. Mintaka is shining bright white while the secondary is a subdued crystal blue.

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Peter ordered an Observers Handbook 2007 through AAA and was told that they would not have enough books to honor his order so he bought one from NYSkies. Then he got word from AAA that they had his handbook and would deliver it at their monthly lecture in November. Rather than leave one of his copies at home and another in his office, which would have been a perfectly reasonable thing to do, he ordered a third copy and is giving one of the extras to Kin and the other to me as a holiday gift. I got my copy tonight and have already discovered something in it that. I had not considered. For the 3Mar07 lunar eclipse they have a listing of times when about 20 lunar features will disappear and reappear. I hadn't considered timing disappearances and reappearances of individual lunar features. I don’t think this table will not extend the period of observing but will at something of interest to view between contacts.