9 May 2007

Observing Location	CSP
Observational Period	0045-0345 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature high 50sF Wind Light Breeze becoming Calm Humidity High Feels Like a raw chill Transparency Excellent Seeing II
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie ~24mm Kellner w/helical focuser (18x) Celestron Omni 20mm (21x) Celestron Omni 2x Barlow
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I had planned to take a nap last night and get up to head downtown at moonrise to try to observe Mare Orientale again. When the alarm went off at 0130 I rolled over and went back to sleep. So tonight I left for the park before getting into bed and before the Moon rose to take advantage of the last clear weather for a few days. It is supposed to get cloudy tomorrow night, rain on Friday, and be cloudy most of the weekend.

I brought my big gun out tonight in case Peter didn’t make it with one of his scopes and it turns out it was a good decision because he observed from TotL before the Moon rose.

I had trouble getting the finder to line up with the scope again tonight. I found that it was closer if I slipped it only half way onto the shoe and had it almost aligned when the light went out. I rummaged around and found a couple of new batteries so installed one and still no light. Eventually I found that if I turn the adnustment screws too far in certain directions it greaks the circuit somehow. This is the first time I have run into that problem.

Target Jupiter Constellation Oph Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070509.0100 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 44.5" Magnitude -2.5 Central Meridian I/II 346.87°/° Altitude 22°2’ Moons Starry Night Starter graphic By the end of the night Io and Europa were noticeably closer to the planet. I might have seen a stripe across the planet, but I also might have been seeing a defect in my optics.

Target Alberio Constellation Cyg Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070509.0125 EDT Comments While waiting for the Moon I looked for things I could find to take up time. I didn’t have a sky atlas so had to work from memory and it was clear enough that I could see Alberio naked-eye so could get the scope near it. It looks just like ι Cnc that we looked at Friday night, but might have more separation and is brighter.

Target Head of Scorpius Constellation Sco Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070509.0130 EDT Comments I started at Antares and hopped my way up into the head of Scorpius and out into both claws ending up over the ν Sco double.

Target Lyra Constellation Lyr Category Constellation Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 2007 EDT Comments I had no trouble finding Vega but didn’t have similar luck locating the rest of Lyra. They should have been easy with the sky looking clear but they weren’t popping out to me in the FoV.

Target Coathanger, Brochi’s Cluster, Collinder 399 Constellation Vul Category Asterism Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070509.0145 EDT Comments I remembered that the Coathanger is somewhere about half way between Alberio and Altair so I pointed the telescope there and dropped it right on the asterism. Starry Night Starter graphic The cluster looked particularly good tonight because there is breathing room around it in SAR with the Kellner and the telescope flips it right side up so it doesn’t require quite as much imagination to see it for a coathanger. Starry Night Starter graphic Wikepedia says that the status of the Coathanger as a cluster has flipped back and forth numerous times and that it is now considered just an asterism.

0148 EDT - Moon Rises

Target Moon Constellation Cap Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070509.0155 EDT Comments Lunation 1043 Phase Waning Gibbous Age 21.76d Distance Light Time (from earth) 382,975 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 60.4% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) Libration, Latitude 4°47’ Libration, Longitude -6°24’ Magnitude -12.17 Angular Size 31.20' Altitude 1°11’ Starry Night Starter graphic The Moon appeared as a half disk rising out of the buildings and at first I didn’t know if it was the Moon or a lit up cupola on one of the buildings. There was lots of boiling across the disc and big divots are missing from the bottom, western limb. Grimaldi looks a lot farther into the disc than usual. I am sure I should have seen Mare Orientale and I probably did see it, but I am not certain that I did see it. There was not enough contrast in the eyepiece and too much boiling. I did see a thin strio of lake that wasn’t as fat as Lacus Autumni and alleared to be longer than Autumni so I suspect that that was Lacus Veris but the seeing wasn’t stable enough to say that with any degree of certainty. >> Starry Night Starter graphic Byrgius appears to have rays extending into the libration zone and there was a crater on the limb about level in latitude with Copernicus that also looked rayed (Bohr R?).

0230 EDT - Robins begin to sing

0515 EDT - Beginning of Civil Twilight