3 December 2006

Anticipating Weather Changes Based on the Barometer

Barometer		Wind Direction	Weather Indicated
Reading	Trend
>30.20	Falling Rapidly	S to E	Warmer; rain within 24 hrs
		W to N	Cool and clear, quickly followed by warmer and rain
	Steady	variable	No change imminent
30.00 - 30.20	Rising Rapidly	W	Fair, followed within two days by warmer and rain
	Steady	W	Fair with slight changes in temperature next 1-2 days
	Falling Rapidly	S to E	Warmer and rain within 24 hrs
< 30.00	Rising	S to W	Clearing and colder within 12hrs
	Falling Slowly	S to E	Rain within 18 hours; continues 1-2 days
	Falling Rapidly	SE to NE	Rain & high wind; followed within 2 days by clearing and colder
<29.80	Rising Rapidly	Shifting W	Clearing and colder
	Falling Rapidly	S to W	Severe wind and rain storm imminent; in winter snow and cold wave within 24hrs
		S to E	Nor'easter; severe northeast gales with heavy rain or snow; in winter followed by cold wave

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Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1115-1145 EST It takes me twice as long to make my observations with SAR as it does with Binoculars. Part of the additional time is longer set up and tear down; part of it is the time it takes to locate the sun; and part of it is time spent trying to maintain focus.
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 40°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Pleasant There is a little bit of haze and a few widely scattered small clouds. There was no boiling. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 - Charlie Celestron Omni 20mm Celestron Omni 2x Barlow Baader AstroSolar filter film
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Oph Category Solar Time 20061203.1115 EST Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +0.57° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 111.57° Position Angle (P) +15.11° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2050 I could not see any sign of Group 928 again today. Group 926 seems to be becoming better defined.   Groups Spots R North 1 1 11 South 1 6 16 Total 2 7 27 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 926 Heliographic Latitude -11° Heliographic Longitude 142° Mcintosh System Eso A southern hemisphere group. This group is still complex but less so than yesterday. It still has three subgroups. The farthest west, the P spot, is the largest and is surrounded by an easily seen penumbra. There are two assiciated smaller spots outside the penumbra to the south. I don't see any facula areound this spot today. The middle subgroup appears to be a single unbra surrounded by umbra. It doesn't appear to be surrounded by facula either. The last sub group in the line appears to be dissipating. There are two small umbral spots without penumbra. I can see a broad area of facula around the spots. Group 927 Heliographic Latitude +4° Heliographic Longitude 129° Mcintosh System Csx A northern Hemisphere group. This group appears to be a single umbral spot surrounded by penumbra and facula. I thought I got a glimpse of a small spot close by to the south but was not able to recover it.

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Today was Celestron Day at Adorama so I had arranged to meet Kin there at 1400 EST. When I arrived Rich Rosenberg and John Pazmino were there talking with Mile Peoples of Adorama. I got the Celestron rep, Ed, and cot a tour of Sky Scout.

We were inside so it was not able to see any satellites to get a position fix but it would identify something it thought we were pointing it at or tell us how to get to something we told it we wanted to see. I guess it was using the last position fix it had gotten but I didn't ask about that. You can't lock in a position fix for a location you frequently use and shut down the GPS to save battery power. I guess it gets its time signals solely from the GPS also.

It uses AA batteries that are supposed to last about four days and the rep recommended using rechargeable batteries. The unit automatically powers off after a period of time, Ed thought it was five minutes, and there is no adjustment for that setting. I don't know if that is 5 minutes after the last button press or after the last sensor movement, or after something else.

There is no way to tell it to find the sun but we couldn't find out if it would tell you to point it at an object transiting the sun. You are not magnifying the image so it isn't like you are going to instantly go blind if you happen to pass it over the Sun.

You hold the unit at arms length and align lighted reticules on the front and back ends which I found to be easier than I had anticipated. I had no trouble seeing through the optical path indoors in the brightly lighted showroom but I don't know if I would be able to see Pherkad through it. There as a 1/4x20 tripod socket on the bottom but Ed doesn't know what its purpose is since he says the unit contains both magnetic and gravitation sensors so should not be used near metal. If it does detect an increased magnetic influence it alerts you so you know it may be confused.

Onboard there is a large star catalog and there is all kinds of scientific data for about 2,000 objects, assumedly the brightest and most popular. Some of that information is displayed on the LCD display (faint red backlight) and some of it is in text files. I don't know if the same information is in both places or if the audio is just highlights from the text. There is a USB port to download updates to the firmware and star catalog, and a SD port for unspecified future expansions.

When you tell it you want to know about a constellation it can show you a stick figure map and then guide you to the brightest stars. The map doesn’t identify adjacent constellations to give you context. I don't know if you get audio prompts in the Find mode or just arrows in the viewfinder.

It is an interesting device. I still don't know how well it works since I didn't get to point it at anything real to verify its accuracy. The use I see for it that would be of the most benefit to me is finding planets and thin crescent moons during the daytime.

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When we left Adorama at 1600 EST there were stripes of cirrus or light altostratus in the sky but it still looked like there would be a chance of seeing the Pleiades Occultation..

Now at 1700 EST from home there appears to be more clouds up there. The moon is awake and shining through them but there is no sign naked-eye of any nearby stars.

I am still planning to go down to the park in hopes that conditions are really better in Manhattan than they are up here.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1845-2300 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Overcast Temperature 30s F Wind Gentle Breeze gusting to Moderate Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like Cold It was overcast all night with the exception of about 10 minutes around 2145 EST when it got crystal clear. Transparency Poor Seeing V
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 - Charlie Pentax 20x60 –Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

Target Occultation of M45 by the Moon Constellation Tau Category Occultation Time 20061203.2010 EST Comments Lunation 1038 Phase waxing gibbous Age Start: 13d2h51m End: 13d4h37m Elongation Start: 166.31°E End: 167.22°E % Illuminated Start: 98.6% End: 98.8% Magnitude Start: -12.5 End: -12.6 Altitude Start: 52.90° End: 69.86deg; Not Seen Predicted event times from Occult 3.0. Time EST Event object PA Comment 1507       Moon Rises 2010 D Electra 72 triple star 2022 D Celano 36 double star 2051 D Maia 43 double star 2100 D Taygeta 357 multiple star system 2121 R Electra 238 triple star 2122 D Pleiade C 122   2127 R Taygeta 313 multiple star system 2129 d Asterope 349   2146 r Asterope 322   2200   Alcyone 157 near graze 2200 R Maia 268 double star 2204 R Pleiade C 190 2225 r Celaeno 274 double Star 2253       Moon Transits Time EST Events 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Electra Occulted 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Celano Occulted 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 2036 2037 2038 2039 2040 20s1 2042 2043 2044 2045 2046 2047 2048 2049 2050 2051 Maia Occulted 2052 2053 20d4 2055 2056 2057 2058 2059 2100 Taygeta Occulted 2101 2102 2103 2104 2105 2106 2107 2108 2109 2110 2111 2112 2113 2114 2115 2116 2117 2118 2119 2120 2121 2122 Pleiade C Occulted 2123 2124 2125 2126 2127 2128 2129 Asterope Occulted 2130 2131 2132 2133 2134 2135 2136 2137 2138 2139 2140 2141 2142 2143 2144 2145 2146 2147 2148 2149 2150 2151 2152 2153 2154 2155 2156 2157 2158 2159 2200 Alcyone near graze 2201 2202 2203 2204 2205 We saw three or four Pliade but never saw any of them anywhere near the limb of the Moon. The lunar halo was even more pronounced tonight than last night. Carol, Vinny and another dog walker had noticed it and stopped by to enquire about it. The Moon exhibited low contrast except for the very bright features, Proclus, Aristarchus, a bright crater in the south and the rays out of Tycho. The only notable dark feature was Grimaldi which was the darkest feature visible. Other Names for The Pleiades Place Name Meaning Africa hen and chicks Arabia Ath-thuravva the crowd Australian Aborigines Majars Aztec Tranquiztli the marketplace Britain the Seven Sisters   Denmark Aften Hoehne the eve hen England, medieval the hen with chicks   Greece   the hencoop India Kritika   Japan Subaru the tortoise Maori, New Zealand Mataariki small eyes Spain Las Cabrillas the nanny goats Russia Nasedha the sitting hen