12 July 2007

Observing Location	VP & SIBL I spent all my time on the first observation studying the group’s structure and forgot to note it’s location so had to take another look.
Observational Period	1100-1115 & 1200-1215 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 76°F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Feels Like Slightly warm but comfortable It looks like somebody pushed the wrong button and let a good day sneak in among the string of bad ones. There is a beautiful blue sky out there now and it is supposed to hold through sunset tonight when there might be another Manhattan Henge event. Transparency Excellent Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie Nikon CoolPix 990 digital camera - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070712.1200 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.016583 AU 8ms Angular Size 31'30.9" Altitude 67.7° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.06° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 75.57° Position Angle (P) 2.39° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2058 Today is my first time seeing Group 963 and it is huge. I can easily see the smaller, and that is a relative description as even they are large, spots.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 1 4 4 Total 1 4 4 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 963 Heliographic Latitude -6° Heliographic Longitude 63° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2058 Mcintosh System Eac The front spot is very large with obvious penumbra. The back spot is smaller with less obvious penumbra. Between those spots are two smaller spots that look more like smudges. For the location of the group I used the leading spot as it is the biggest and I suspect will be the last to disappear.

---

The other day Space Weather reported that comet 2006 VZ13 (LINEAR) is a binocular object in Draco and appears green.

Vincent Jacques graphic from Space Weather
Seiichi Yoshida graphic
Seiichi Yoshida graphic Tonight it should be just outside of the second bend of Draco. I would like to see it. Unfortunately it is moving toward the Sun and our weather is heading south.

---

Observing Location	Park Ave @ 34 St, New York, NY
Observational Period	2000-2030 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 77°F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like Warm but comfortable It looks like there is a bit of haze up there. The pictures show that there were some clouds low on the NJ horizon. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Manhattan Henge Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070712.2010 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.016610 AU 8ms Angular Size 31'30.9" Altitude 1.8° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.09° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 71.07° Position Angle (P) 2.54° Carrington rotation number (CR) There were only two other people there tonight who were obviously there to observe the event so it was a lot easier to get pictures. I tried to observe the sunspots and could see them briefly early during the event but there was a tree in front of the sun from where I was on the curb. When the traffic light changed I moved into the center of the intersection to make my photographs. 2011 EDT The sun isn’t anywhere near as far into the street as it would appear from this picture. Only a small slice of the limb is actually peaking out from behind the buildings. 2015 EDT 2016 EDT 2017 EDT 2018 EDT 2019 EDT 2020 EDT 2021 EDT

---

Observing Location	TotL I started out at TotLeast and after observing Saturn and Venus for a bit there noticed Peter at TotL so moved over to join him.
Observational Period	2100-0130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature mid to low 70s F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Comfortable to a little cool Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular – Charlie Takahashi 102 refractor – Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I didn’t make any notes tonight so will just make a narrative account of the session.

I easily found Saturn naked eye as soon as I arrived on location and observed it until it had passed most of the way down to the trees. I was not able to locate Titan.

Venus was obviously flattened on one side. A woman who stopped to look reported seeing a strong red color there but I did not pick it up myself.

I could see three moons lined up on the western limb of the planet.

Starry Night Starter graphic

When I moved over to Peter he reported a moon shadow in transit on the NEB and later thought he saw a moon just off the limb around the NEB. I could see the small perfect black dot of the moon’s shadow but was not able to pick up the moon itself. A little while later he said he thought he saw the moon separating from the planet and when I looked I could see a white pimple on Jupiter’s limb just above where the NEB would have touched the limb if I had been able to have seen it.

Starry Night Starter graphic The NEB appeared to be much darker than I have seen it recently and the SEB was more in evidence. I saw a “dome” of shade to the south where the south polar hood would have been. It appeared to me to extend nearly up to the SEB.

The main reason for coming to the park tonight was to try to spot Comet 2006 VZ13 (LINEAR) while it is still bright and before it moves too close to the sun to be seen. We made a more-than-valiant effort but could not find it. I didn’t have any reference materials so was having trouble finding my way around the sky. Peter had put the ephemeris data into Planetarium and had the comet located near ι Dra, which is where I thought it should be based on my remembrance of the locator chart I had seen earlier in the day, and also over near the club of Bootes. We looked both places and didn’t find anything. That area of the sky was very high and it was painful looking there either with the binocular or the telescope. I was wishing I had brought SAR tonight. We ended up stretched out on the sidewalk looking straight up with our respective binoculars.

We ended the night looking at a globular cluster in Sagittarius. Peter thought it was brighter in his binocular than in the telescope. In the scope I could see two faint fuzzies that I thought might be something and one of them was the cluster. The other wasn’t seen by Peter and probably wasn’t by me either.

We were all packed up and ready to go around 0130 when a police car came onto the walk from the west. There were some other people to the west of us a short distance away so they got the talking to about being in the park after curfew while we moved off toward the exit. It is always the women cops.