16 September 2007

I know for sure that I saw the crescent Moon hanging over the skyline as I rode the bus across the Whitestone Bridge on my way home to get my equipment tonight. There was some low cloud but the air seemed crystal clear.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2045-0130 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered becoming Clear Temperature 57° - 55°F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Feels Like Very cool It feels cooler tonight than it did last night when I wasn’t as warmly dressed so I suspect that it was more humid tonight. When we packed up my bags felt moist. There were some clouds around when I arrived but they disappeared. When looking to the SW at Jupiter and Antares I remarked on the presence of cloud that I was not seeing naked-eye. Peter remarked that seeing wasn’t that good but I was able to see all the moons of Jupiter and didn’t have to do a lot of focus adjustments when looking through his scope so and defect was either below my observing threshold or had dissipated by the time I got to looking through the scope. I wasn’t able to see the faintest Perseus fishhook star, the one in the shank, early on even through the binocular. I was able to see Pherkad Minor again tonight. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Golden Gate 7x35 binocular – Charlie Teleport 10" Donsonisn reflector – Peter 2" Pentax 40mm, 70° FoV, 31.8x 2" TeleVue Nagler 17mm, 82° FoV, 74.7x 1.25" TeleVue Nagler 13mm, 82° FoV, 97.7x 1.25" TeleVue Plossl 7mm, 82° FoV, 181.4x
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target Jupiter Constellation Oph Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2100 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 36.5" Magnitude -2.1 Central Meridian I/II 6.31°/99.90° Altitude 14° Moons Starry Night Starter graphic I could easily see two moons and had more trouble with the remaining two but I got them. Callisto was the farthest out to the east and the faintest. Io was hard to see because it was close to the planet.

Target Pherkad Minor Constellation UMi Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2105 EDT Comments Last night I thought I saw Pherkad Minor but Peter didn’t see it. We never put binodulars on it to confirm it. Tonight I could see it again naked eye and confirmed it in the binoculars and feel that field rotation would have put it where I detected it last night.

Target Kemble’s Cascade & NGC1502 Constellation Cam Category Asterism Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2109 EDT Comments I found the cascade but only the major rapids were visible tonight. It was difficult to see much more than three of the brighter stars below the three landmark stars at the top of the cascade. Neither Peter nor I were able to see NGC1502.

Target Fishhook Constellation Per Category Asterism Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916 EDT Comments Peter and I have often used the fishhook as an indicator of transparency. Tonight I only saw two or three stars naked eye and even with the binocular was only barely able to detect Mag 5.37 HIP18396. Perseus is still rising so more stars should become visible later on but the transparency isn’t all that good low down.

A lot tonight Peter would find something and have me try and find what he had found and describe it and we could compare what we were seeing. Sometimes we agreed right away, sometimes one of us would change his opinion, and sometimes we would stick to our guns.

Target M10, NGC6254 Constellation Oph Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070917.2119 EDT Comments Teleport Fairly large and moderately bright. It looks like there might be a tight double just to the east of it. [I don’t see a double showing in Carted du Ciel and suspect what I was seeing was 30 Oph.] At higher magnification I picked up a few twinkling points of light in the cluster but the body of the cluster was much less obvious.

Target Perseus/Cassiopeia Clusters Constellation Per & Cas Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2138 EDT Comments Not Seen in the binocular M34, NGC1039 35’x35’ Mag 5.2 TR2 20’x20’ Mag 5.90 moderately rich Stock 23, Pazmino’s Cluster 14’ CR33 40’x40’ Mag 5.90 CR34 25’x25’ Mag 6.80 embedded in CR33 Cartes du Ciel graphic

Target Double Cluster, NGC869 & NGC884 Constellation PEr Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2200 EDT Comments Appears to fill about ½ the FoV. Cartes du Ciel says each cluster is about 30’x30’ and my FoV is 8°-10° so I may have also been seeing Stock 2 and interpreting it as NGC869. The cluster didn’t look as rich as it does in the scopes and it is often hard to tell where a cluster begins and ends, particularly in a rich star field.

Target M15, NGC7078 Constellation Peg Category DSO: GCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2203 EDT Comments Teleport Bright core drops off quickly and irregularly.

Target M2, NGC7089 Constellation Aqr Category DSO: GCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2212 EDT Comments Teleport Mostly a bright core at first but then a thin nebular surround appeared displaced to the SE.

Target ι Cas Constellation Cas Category Double Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2254 EDT Comments This is a triple star. The primary stars are very tight and I didn’t split them. I inferred that they were a double because I couldn’t get the star to focus to a point even though the fainter secondary was focused. It always looked elongated horizontally. They are Mag 4.63/4.52 and both go by the same HIP number. The secondary doesn’t have a common catalog number and is mag 6.71 and appears a little cream colored. Cartes du Ciel graphic

Target Blanco 1 Constellation Scu Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2303 EDT Comments I saw this big open cluster marked on my map to the left of Fomalhaut and thought I might have a chance at it. Peter said we don’t see Sculptor, but if Fomalhaut is visible I figured that part of Sculptor should be also. I hopped over there and saw two stars where the cluster should be. Mostly I saw a lot of flare from the street light down that way. The cluster is right below and to the east of δ Sculptoris. Starry Night Starter graphic Starry Night Starter graphic Looking on the internet I find a lot of references to this cluster that neither Peter nor I had ever heard of before. It seems it is an X-ray source.

Target Erakis, Garnet Star, μ Cep Constellation Cep Category Star Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2305 EDT Comments The Garnet Star doesn’t look like much until you get it into the binocular, then it glows a bright orange. Starry Night Starter graphic

Target NGC7243 Constellation LAC Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2310 EDT Comments Teleport Sparse with a couple levels of brightness. Cartes du Ciel graphic Starry Night Starter graphic

Target NGC225 Constellation Cas Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070916.2323 EDT Comments Teleport It looks like a bowl of cereal with blueberries, turned on its side. The background glow is the cereal and the brighter stars are the outline of the bowl and the blueberries in the cereal. Not sparse, and not rich either; just a cluster. Cartes du Ciel graphic

It was a little cold and Peter hadn't had dinner yet so we decided at midnight that we would leave early. By the time we got all packed up and out to Fifth Avenue and finished talking I am not sure it was much earlier than usual. Along the way we looked up and saw Mars, Aldeberan and the Pleiades, but didn't stop to try a limiting magnitude test.