29 May 2007

Observing Location	SIBL
Observational Period	1130-1145 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 71°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like beautiful It looks like it is going to be a great night tonight. It is clear and pleasant now. If it holds up we should go out and do Manhattan Henge again. I have my camera with me. Transparency Excellent Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Tau Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 2007 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.013488 AU 8ms Angular Size 31'36.7" Altitude 64.5° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -1.00° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 298.22° Position Angle (P) -16.44° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2057 No spots are visible. Space Weather has a question mark on the eastern limb but I don’t see anything in the high resolution SOHO image.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

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I got email from CSC telling me how great it is going to be tonight. It looks like nearly perfect conditions. Celar skies, low humidity, good transparency and seeing. I wish it were going to be a little warmer though.

Clear Sky Clock graphic

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Observing Location	Park Ave @ 34 St, New York, Ny
Observational Period	1915-2015 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 77°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like warm Beautiful weather this evening. It is white on the horizon out to the west but that may be just the Sun. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Nikon CoolPix 990 digital camera
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

Target Venus Constellation Gem Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070529.1955 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Phase Waning Gibbous Elongation ° % Illuminated 55.2% Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 21.3" Magnitude -4.2 Altitude 40°29’ Meridian graphic I got another picture of Venus that shows it as an obvious disc but I think it is out of focus since the much closer building on the left is in focus.

Target Manhattan Henge Constellation Tay Category Alignment Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070529.2010 EDT Comments Conditions were much better tonight than last night and the crowd was much smaller. Apart from Kin and me there might have been three other people there for the event. The Sun makes an appearance The Sun fully exposed, I think Another photographer takes in the scene The Sun begins to set The Sun has nearly set In the last images I can see some cloud out to the west that was not visible when the Sun was higher up in the sky.

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Observing Location	TPO & TotL I had missed Peter’s email saying he was toing to TotL after observing Manhattan Henge so headed to TPO to catch Jupiter cresting the trees earlier than it does from TotL since my main goal was to see Jupiter. Kin cycled down shortly after I had gotten myself set up and said Peter was up at TotL so I moved up there. After a short while we moved over to the west side of the Lawn and observed Vesta from there.
Observational Period	2130-2400 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 67°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like comfortably cool There was a ring around the moon at times and varying degrees of boiling. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular – Charlie Takahashi 22x60 binocular - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee

Target Moon Constellation Lib Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070529.2130 EDT Comments Lunation 1044 Phase Waxing Gibbous Full -1d Age 13.25d Distance Light Time (from earth) 401,496 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 96.3% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) Libration Latitude 6°32’ Libration Longitude -1°22’ Magnitude -12.57 Angular Size 29.76' Altitude 23°29’ > Virtual Moon Atlas graphic This image was made with the camera hand held up to the binocular eyepiece. There are rays everywhere tonight. Copernicus is an irregular blob of very light gray, I can not make out the crater at all. Grimaldi appears to be a very dark oval with a lighter, smaller oval in its NW corner. The only thing I can relate to it on my map is Riccioli but that crater is too big for what I am seeing. In Peter’s binocular it just looks like a lighter area of crater floor. In my binocular Pythagoras looks like it is sitting right on the terminator and I have trouble making out the central peak, but in Peter’s binocular I can see a band of illuminated plain between Pythagoras’s far wall and the terminator. There is a white splotch above Tycho (as seen with this field rotation) that might be Deslandres.

Target Jupiter Constellation Oph Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070529.2145 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 45.6" Magnitude -2.6 Central Meridian I/II 306.82°/159.43° Altitude 17°39’ Moons Starry Night Starter graphic I tried to photograph Jupiter but didn’t have any luck holding the camera steady behind the eyepiece and only got one big dot of light anyway. Peter asked if I saw an indication of any banding on the planet and I reported seeing the impression of one gray stripe above the plane of the moons with the eastern end being higher than the western. He said that that agreed with his perception also.

Target (4) Vesta Constellation Oph Category Asteroid Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070529.2230 EDT Comments It took a bit of work to get onto the right star in Ophiuchus to begin my hop but once I was there Vesta was easily found. I had looked up the ephemeris data for midnight on 20May07 and looked that location up in Stary Night Starter and in the Sky an Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas and determined that Vesta should be right about on the line of the Oph stick figure beneath M107 and about level with HIP80793. That is right about where we found it. There was an extra star in the FoV about the same brightness as the HIP star that is Vesta. Starry Night Starter says HIP80793 is Mag 5.65 and Vesta is supposed to peak out at around Mag 5.6 when it is at opposition tomorrow. Pocket Sky Atlas graphic Cartes du Ciel graphic