21 July 2007

Observing Location	VP
Observational Period	1030-1045 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 76°F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like Cool in the wind The sky has stripes of cirrus cloud going in every direction. It is almost like jet contrails, but they don’t even look like old contrails. There is lots of boiling evident ont the limb of the Sun today. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070721.1045 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.016072 AU 8ms Angular Size 31'31.9" Altitude 54.8° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.91° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 317.17° Position Angle (P) 6.33° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2059 There is nothing visible today.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

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It is supposed to be mostly clear tonight so I am going to give C/2006 13 (LINEAR) one more chance to show itself. I had the MPC calculate the ephemeris for TotL for the remainder of the month. I set it up to only show me the data when the comet is above the horizon and the Sun is not then chopped off the data for times after curfew. According to their data the comet has past its peak brightness so is going to get harder to find. And out weather is suposed to go south again so I expect that tonight will be my last observing opportunity.

Date Jul2007 UT	Time UT	RA.	Dec.	Mag.	Az.	Alt.
22	0100	13.8081	+30.711	9.8	080	+61
	0200	13.8044	+30.597	9.8	091	+50
	0300	13.8006	+30.484	9.8	100	+38
	0400	13.7969	+30.371	9.8	108	+27
	0500	13.7932	+30.258	9.8	116	+17
23	0100	13.7227	+28.056	9.9	078	+58
	0200	13.7193	+27.948	9.9	089	+47
	0300	13.7159	+27.840	9.9	098	+35
	0400	13.7126	+27.732	9.9	107	+24
	0500	13.7093	+27.625	9.9	115	+13
24	0100	13.6458	+25.528	9.9	076	+55
	0200	13.6427	+25.425	9.9	087	+44
	0300	13.6396	+25.322	9.9	097	+32
	0400	13.6366	+25.220	9.9	106	+21
	0500	13.6336	+25.118	9.9	114	+10
25	0100	13.5761	+23.129	10.0	074	+52
	0200	13.5733	+23.031	10.0	086	+41
	0300	13.5706	+22.934	10.0	096	+30
	0400	13.5678	+22.837	10.0	105	+18
	0500	13.5651	+22.740	10.0	114	+07
26	0100	13.5128	+20.857	10.0	073	+50
	0200	13.5103	+20.765	10.0	085	+38
	0300	13.5077	+20.673	10.0	095	+27
	0400	13.5052	+20.582	10.0	104	+16
	0500	13.5028	+20.490	10.0	113	+05
27	0100	13.4550	+18.712	10.0	073	+47
	0200	13.4527	+18.625	10.0	084	+36
	0300	13.4504	+18.538	10.1	094	+24
	0400	13.4481	+18.451	10.1	103	+13
	0500	13.4458	+18.365	10.1	113	+02
28	0100	13.4020	+16.687	10.1	072	+44
	0200	13.3998	+16.605	10.1	084	+33
	0300	13.3977	+16.523	10.1	094	+22
	0400	13.3956	+16.442	10.1	103	+10
29	0100	13.3532	+14.778	10.1	071	+42
	0200	13.3512	+14.701	10.1	083	+31
	0300	13.3493	+14.624	10.2	093	+19
	0400	13.3473	+14.547	10.2	103	+08
30	0100	13.3082	+12.980	10.2	071	+39
	0200	13.3063	+12.907	10.2	083	+28
	0300	13.3045	+12.834	10.2	093	+17
	0400	13.3027	+12.762	10.2	102	+05
31	0100	13.2664	+11.285	10.3	071	+37
	0200	13.2647	+11.216	10.3	082	+26
	0300	13.2630	+11.148	10.3	092	+14
	0400	13.2614	+11.080	10.3	102	+03

I don't trust the Alt and Az data they are providing since they put the comet over near Lyra, but the RA and Dec seem to have it in the right place, over near Bootes.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2015-2400 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered to Broken Clouds Temperature 77°-74°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Pleasant Transparency Poor Seeing III
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular – Charlie SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie ~24mm Kellner w/helical focuser (18x) Celestron Omni 20mm (21x) Celestron Omni 2x Barlow The sky wasn’t good enough for me to bother getting out the scope
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Kin Lee

Target Venus Constellation Leo Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070721.2015 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Phase Waning Crescent Elongation ° % Illuminated 18.2% Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 43.8" Magnitude -4.5 Altitude 16° Meridian graphic Venus was easy to spot when the a hole in the clouds passed over it. When it was in light cloud it had obvious horns.

Target Moon Constellation Vir Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070721.2015 EDT Comments Lunation 1046 Phase First Quarter Age 7.51d Distance Light Time (from earth) 401,524 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 47.8% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 357.0° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 177.0° Libration in Latitude 5°47’ Libration in Longitude +0°21’ Magnitude -11.81 Angular Size 29'76" Altitude 30° Starry Night Starter graphic The Moon spent a good bit of time in clouds and Hawaiian George had arrived before Saturn and Venus had disappeared and we spent time talking about his trip to Nepal so I didn’t get much real observing done. I do remember thinking that I saw the Alpine Valley poking out of the terminator. The main thing I did was appreciate the sight of the Moon moving behind the clouds which were passing behind the towers of one of the illuminated hotel/apartment buildings. It would have made a nice picture as there was texture in part of the building, in the clouds, and the Moon was somewhat attenuated. I became aware as the Moon passed behind the buildings that it was approaching the horizon a good distance south of where Saturn had set so I waited until it disappeared and measured the distance with the head of my tripod and found it to be around 45°. Starry Night Starter graphics Saturn is above the ecliptic and the Moon is below it and the ecliptic has itself moved south by 25° during the two hours between the settings.

Target Saturn Constellation Leo Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070721.2045 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU hm Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 16.4" Ring Angular Size "x" Ring Inclination ° Magnitude +0.7 Altitude 10° Saturn started out elongated and as the sky got darker it appeared more circular. Naked-eye I was just able to pick it out as a faint apostrophe to the right of Venus.

Target Jupiter Constellation Vir Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070721.2130 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 43.0" Magnitude -2.4 Central Meridian I/II 30.51°/198.82° Altitude 28° Moons Starry Night Starter graphic At the beginning of the evening there was one moon, Ganymede, to the left of Jupiter and three, Io, Europa, and Callisto, out to the right and ω Oph still farther out to the right and looking like an additional moon. Later in the evening while I was watching Ganymede disappeared and I figured it had gone behind the planet. On checking Sky & Telescope I found that Ganymede started a tansit at 2347 EST, 2343 local time. Starry Night Starter graphic

Target C/2006 VZ13 (LINEAR) Constellation CVn Category Comet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070721.~2200 EDT Comments The main reason for coming out tonight was to try to catch this comet before it gets too faint and before the weather goes south, both of which are supposed to happen. I had checked the ephemeris information for TotL and planned my star hop. It is still way up there where it is hard on your neck looking through binoculars, but I think I finally got it. I hopped and confirmed where I had gotten to and there is something that I can detect in that area when I use averted vision. Everything else in the FoV resolves but this object. It was too faint for George to be able to see it, Kin hadn’t arrived yet, and Peter is still in Japan so there was no one who could even confirm that there was something where I was seeing something. Starry Night Starter graphic annotated in Photoshop Elements Arcturus ρ1 Boo & ρ2 Boo Seginus HIP69879, Mag 4.78 HIP67665, Mag 4.75, red HIP68065, Mag 6.28