3 March 2007

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1130-1200 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 55° Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Feels Like Pleasant It if hard to believe that this beautiful weather will be gone in a few hours. The sky is clear and blue and there is no wavering of the image. Transparency Excellent Seeing I
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie Celestron Omni 20mm Celestron Omni 2x Barlow Kellner ~20mm w/helical focuser
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Aqr Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070303.1130 EST Comments Distance Light Time 0.991 AU 8m15s Angular Size 32'16" Altitude 41.64° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -7.24° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 6.67° Position Angle (P) -22.08° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2053 I checked Active Region Explorer yesterday and it indicated that Group 945 had dissipated. I could easily see Group 944 but nothing else.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 1 1 11 Total 1 1 11 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 944 Heliographic Latitude -8° Heliographic Longitude 61° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2053 Mcintosh System Aax This is a small single spot with an irregular penumbra surrounded by a wife area of plage. It is most of the way over to the western limb in the southern hemisphere.

Everything came together today. I quickly located the Sun's image in the unmagnified filter and moved it under the secondary. I dropped Peter's eyepiece in and the Sun was just off the edge of the FoV and was even focused. I tried the Barlow with the Kellner and it was a snap to focus. I substituted my 20mm Plossl ape the Kellner and had to change the focal length to get the image to focus at all. Then I had to fiddle with the Barlow and eyepiece to get the best focus I could and the image of the spot was not as crisp as what I had with the Kellner.

I have located a company (Borg) on the internet that makes telescopes and they make an helical focuser for $40 that sounds like it can be dropped into a rack and pinion focuser and then the eyepiece dropped into it in order to increase focusing accuracy. I have emailed them to ask if it can be used with my scope and am inclined to purchase it. Peter doesn't recommend spending any more money on SAR because of all the problems it has. But this investment will make the scope, as is, easier to use and I will probably use it more often as a result. I will then have an incentive to do more work to optimize the views it yields. Even if I don't get perfect views, which I know will never happen with this scope, and particularly this one, a $40 investment in this scope that improves usability is a lot cheaper than hundreds of dollars for a new scope. This scope is in good enough condition for me to observe occultations, which is the thing I am most interested in. If I were really into searching for and studying faint fuzzies this scope definitely would not do. Besides, it is cool that this scope breaks down and fit into a cube 9"x5"x8". What other scope of comparable aperture can do that?

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The weather forecast for the eclipse tonight is looking a little more favorable right now but not by much. As I write this at noon thin clouds are starting to fill the sky and they are saying that a cold front will move through this afternoon and it will become partly cloudy with a chance of rain and thunderstorms. Tonight is supposed to be mostly cloudy with a chance of rain.

I had planned to take the 35mm camera tonight and mount it and the Canons on my transverse bar but with the possibility of rain I think I will minimize the amount of equipment that will need to be protected and just take SAR and the short wave radio. SAR will give me a larger image and make it easier for me to see craters going into and coming out of shadow.

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. . . Plutarch speaking of a Lunary eclipse, relates, that at such times 'twas a custome amongst the Romanes (the most civill and learned people in the world) to sound brasse Instruments, and hold great torches toward the heaven. [Greek text] for by this means they supposed the Moone was much eased in her labours, and therfore Ovid calls such loud Instruments the auxiliaries or helpes of the Moone. [Latin text] and therefore the Satyrist too describing a loud scold, saies, she was able to make noise enough to deliver the labouring Moone. [Latin text] Now the reason of all this their ceremonie, was, because they feared the world would fall asleepe, when one of its eyes began to winke, and therefore they would doe what they could by loud sounds to rouse it from its drowsinesse, and keep it awake by bright torches, to bestow that light upon it which it began to lose. Some of them thought hereby to keep the Moone in her orbe, whereas otherwise she would have fallen down upon the earth, and the world would have lost one of its lights, for the credulous people believed that Inchanters, and Witches could bring the Moone downe, which made Virgil say, [Latin text]. And those Wizards knowing the times of her eclipses, would then threaten to shew their skill, by pulling her out of her orbe. So that when the silly multitude saw that she began to look red, they presently feared they should lose the benefit of her light, and therefore made a great noise that she might not heare the sound of those Charmers, which would otherwise bring her downe, and this is rendered for a reason of this custome by Pliny and Propertius: [latin text]. THE DISCOVERY OF A WORLD IN THE MOONE or, A DISCOURSE TENDING TO PROVE, that 'tis probable there may be another habitable World in that Planet. John Wilkins English cleric, 1638

come out come out come out the moon has been killed who kills the moon? Crow who often kills the moon? Eagle who usually kills the moon? Chicken hawk who also kills the moon? Owl in their number they assemble for moon killing come out, throw sticks at your houses come out, turn your buckets over spill out all the water don't let it turn bloody yellow from the wounding and death of the moon. o what will become of the world, the moon never dies without a cause only when a rich man is about to be killed is the moon murdered. look all around the world, dance, throw your sticks, help out, look at the moon, dark as it is now, even if it disappears It will come back, think of nothing I'm going back into the house ... And the others went back. Moon Eclipse Exorcism Anonymous Alsean

Observing Location	CSP
Observational Period	1600-2100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 46°F Wind Moderate Breeze 10 MPH gusting to 24 MPH Humidity Moderate 41% RH Feels Like Cold We really lucked out with the weather. Around 1400 EST this afternoon it was black out and spitting rain in the Bronx. By 1500 EST when I needed to be getting ready to get out of the house I could are clouds above but blue sky to the east so I dressed warm and for rain since NOAA was still saying there was a chance of rain within the forecast area although it sounded like the PoP was higher for western Long Island and CT. When I arrived in the park there were clouds on the horizon in the E through SE with it being clear to the S. The clouds appeared to be breaking up a bit as the Moon was due to be rising but we had to wait 30 minutes until it had risen to 5° before we could see it through the clouds. It was clear after rising for most of the event. Toward the end some clouds covered it a couple of times and one was big enough and dense enough that the Moon was lost from view. At the end of the partial umbral phase the sky became overcast. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular - Charlie Pentax 20x60 binocular - Kin 7x35 binocular - Tom
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee Tom Hanerle Up the walk AAA was observing and Peter Tagatac, Tom Clabough, and Derek Snow were there along with the media and most of the public.

Target Total Lunar Eclipse Constellation Leo Category Eclipses/Occultations/Transits; Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070303.1815 EST Comments Lunation 1041 Phase Full Crust/Worm/Crow/ Sugar/Sap Moon Age 14d7h00m Distance Light Time (from earth) 402,000 km 1.34s Elongation 179.70°W % Illuminated 100.0% Magnitude -12.6 Angular Size 29'48" Altitude ° UT EST Local Time Observed Time UT Event 2018:11 3Mar07 1518:11 3Mar07 1514 3Mar07 3Mar07 P1 - start of eclipse Moon enters Earth's penumbra penumbral eclipse begins P2 2130:20 1630:20 1626 U1 Moon enters Earth's Umbra partial umbral eclipse begins 2244:13 1744:13 1740 U2 - start of totality 2247 1747 1743 Moon Rises 2253 1753 1749 Sun Sets - start of Civil Twilight 2315 Moon first sighted 2317 1817 1813 Full Crust/Worm/ Crow/Sugar/ Sap Moon 2319 Western limb is getting brighter 2320 1820 1816 end of Civil Twilight Start of Nautical Twilight 2320:56 1820:56 1816 Maximum eclipse 2333:04 1833:04 1829:04 2333:05.72 D 59 Leonis 2352 1852 1848 End of Nautical Twilight Beginning of Astronomical Twilight 2357:37 1857:37 1853 U3 - end of totality 0002 4Mar07 Dark cherry color in upper right 0006 1906 3Mar07 1902 3Mar07 0006 E Grimaldi & Aristarchus 0010:39 1910:39 1906:39 0007:07 R 59 Leonis (error margin -5 minutes) 0007:07 R Laplace Promontory 0013 1913 1909 E Kepler & Billy 0017 1917 1913 E Plato 0019 1919 1915 E Pytheas 0022 1922 1918 E Timocharis & Copernicus 0024 1924 1920 End of Astronomical Twilight 0026 1926 1922 E Campanus 0028 1928 1924 E Aristoteles 0030 1930 1926 E Eudoxus 0036 1936 1932 E Tycho 0037 1937 1933 E Manlius 0039:00 R Julius Caesar 0039:25 Shadow is passing through point of the Mare Serenitatis dunce cap 0041 1941 1937 E Menelaus 0045 1945 1941 E Dionysius & Plinius 0046:24 E Posidonus 0055:06 R Mare Tranquilitstis 0055:33 Shadow is passing through middle of Palis Somni 0056 1956 1952 0059:00 E Proclus 0059 1959 1955 E Taruntius 0101 2001 1957 E Goclenius 0107 2007 2003 E Langrenus 0111:28 2011:28 2007 1013:33 U4 Moon leaves Earth's umbra - partial umbral exlipse begins P3 0223:44 2123:44 2119 P4 - End of eclipse 0441 2341 2337 Moon transits Tom found the Moon and I quickly found it in the binoculars and then naked-eye once I knew where it was. It rose in the general area where I was expecting it and where I had been scanning with the binocular. This is the first time I have tried to time events on the disk of the Moon during an eclipse and it was harder than I thought it would be. I didn't remember what the Moon looked like during my last eclipse and at that time was looking at the shadow on the whole disk. There isn't a sharp dividing line between the umbral and penumbral shadows. There is the dark gray of the umbral shadow and the nearly white of the penumbral shadow and between them is a band of intermediate transitional shadow that is probably about a Copernicus diameter in width. It is hard to tell where umbra ends and penumbra begins and when a feature has emerged from the shadow. And because the Sun is directly overhead relative to the Moon, there are minimal shadows around the features making it a low contrast situation in which you have to pick out small features. Even the ones I knew were hard to spot. I would have had a better shot at seeing things with the slight magnification boost if I had brought SAR. I don't know if I can increase contrast between the maria and the highlands on the full moon with a filter. I will have to try to remember to that the next time I go out on a full Moon night.