12 September 2007

Observing Location	VP
Observational Period	1045-1100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 68°F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Low Feels Like A little cool but comfortable in the sun There is a beautiful blue sky with nice fair weather cumulus clouds after the passage of Tropical Depression Gabrielle. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter and Cokin P003 red filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Leo Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 2007 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.006455 AU 8ms Angular Size 31'49.9" Altitude 44.1° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 7.23° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 336.64° Position Angle (P) 23.54° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2061 I didn’t see anything and didn’t find anything showing in the SOHO images. Active Region Explorer diesn’t show anything on the back side either.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

Target Moon Constellation Vir Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070912.1045 EDT Comments Lunation 1048 Phase Waxing Crescent New +13.9 hours Age 1.08d Distance Light Time (from earth) 398260 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 1.1% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 279.3° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 99.3° Libration in Latitude 3°15’ Libration in Longitude 3°33’ Magnitude -8.41 Angular Size 30.00' Altitude 31°50’ Virtual Moon Atlas graphic Not Seen I brought my red filter with me hoping it would make it easier for me to find the 24 hour young crescent Moon, but it didn’t make it easy enough. I scanned along where I thought the ecliptic should have been but didn’t have any idea how far from the Sun the Moon was.

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I got wondering about the relationship of Moon % illumination to magnitude so graphed it. I got my illumination data from Virtual Moon Atlas for the time of transit on each day of the current lunation, 1948. I had to get the magnitude data for the same times from Virtual Moon Atlas.

Then I figured that the distance the Moon is from Earth might have some affect so I added it into the chart.

I really needed another Y axis to make the difference in size and magnitude apparent.

Magnitude produced a nice bell curve, but % illumination was more of a sag. Both curves were fairly regular and when you look at distance and size they all peak out at around the time of Full Moon.

The only conclusion I can draw from this experiment is the obvious one: the more of the moon that is illuminated the brighter it is.

The peak in brightness lags the peak in illumination by one day. This may be because perigee lags Full Moon by the same amount of time and I think the closer Moon would appear a little brighter.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1900-0100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 71°-63°F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Feels Like a little cool It was a bit cloudy when I left home but was clear except for low clouds on the SW horizon – right where I wanted to look. Transparence was excellent right after sunset but seemed to get a little worse as the temperature dropped and the humidity started to climb. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular - Charlie SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie Celestron Omni 20mm (21x) Celestron Omni 2x Barlow
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

I didn’t have very good luck tonight. I thought I would have mu best luck with the Moon at TPO_east and entered the park south of the Met only to find that there was too much haze on the horizon for me to tell where the Sun was setting. I thought I might have better luck if I moved up to TotL_east where the trees would appear lower on the horizon but I still couldn’t find the Sun. It appears to be setting farther south than I am used to, but I can’t state that as fact. I forgot to take the red filter out of my computer bag so didn’t have that to help me as I scanned the horizon hoping to see either the Moon or Mercury. When I started observing with the scope I was having trouble connecting what I saw in the eyepiece to what I was seeing in the atlas. I ended up not seeing much.

Target Moon Constellation Vir Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070912.1900 EDT Comments Lunation 1048 Phase Waxing Crescent New +34.5 hours Age 1.43d Distance Light Time (from earth) 401444 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 2.0% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 283.6° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 103.6° Libration in Latitude 4°06’ Libration in Longitude 2°05’ Magnitude - Angular Size 29.77' Altitude 5°07’ Virtual Moon Atlas graphic Not Seen I had anticipated that this would be an easy catch because the Moon was so far past New, but I failed to remember that it is below the ecliptic so setting close to sunset and in early Civil Twilight when there isn’t a lot of contrast between it and the gray to white horizon. I also had not factored in the low clouds obscuring the sun. Starry Night Starter graphic

Target Mercury Constellation Vir Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070912.1900 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Phase Waning Gibbous Elongation ° % Illuminated 80.2% Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 5.5" Magnitude -0.1 Altitude 10° Meridian graphic Not seen

Target Jupiter Constellation Oph Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070912.2000 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size "x" Magnitude - Central Meridian I/II °/° Altitude ° Moons Starry Night Starter graphic I could only see three moons. Io was still too close to the planet for me to separate it.

Target Neptune Constellation Cap Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070912.2200 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU hm Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 2.3" Magnitude 7.84 Altitude 33° I was on the FOV but didn’t remember where the planet was supposed to be in it and wasn’t doing good with the mental gymnastics translating from the eyepiece to the atlas so it was hard to figure out what was there that didn’t belong. I did see the arc of three stars above (below in the eyepiece) Deneg Algiedi, δ Cap. Starry Night Starter graphic

Target Uranus Constellation Aqr Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070912.2230 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU hm Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 3.6" Magnitude 5.72 Altitude 31° Again I was on the FoV but didn’t remember exactly where to look for the planet. I need to make flags to put in my atlas so I can denote the planet locations without defacing the atlas. I was looking for it outside of the stick figure when I should have been looking inside. Starry Night Starter graphic

I poked around and located the Coathanger by brute force. I couldn’t see anything in the binodular. In the scope it looked nice standing on its end with the hook over the bar so it looked more like a hanger.

Target Mars Constellation Tau Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070913.0040 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 8.7" Magnitude +0.1 Central Meridian 131.33° Altitude 12° Starry Night Starter graphic I had been watching the Pleiades waiting for Mars to rise. A bright spot of orange light came up and I was undecided as to whether it was Aldeberan or Mars. I eventually decided that it was not big enough to be the planet and there was nothing red between it and the Hyades. When I moved around and finally found Mars it was obviously round and was brighter that Aldeberan. Starry Night Starter graphic