2 September 2007

Observing Location	Hos
Observational Period	1215-1230 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 73°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Comdortable Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular w/Welco gold shade 14 welder's filter - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Leo Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070902.1215 EDT Comments Distance Light Time 1.008941 AU 8ms Angular Size 31'44.8" Altitude 57.0° Heliographic Latitude (B0) 7.20° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 121.09° Position Angle (P) 21.12° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2060 There are still two spots there but I can’t see either of them.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

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A hint of fall then heat that's brutal. 1-8Sep07 Old Farmer's Almanac

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2130-0230 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 68°F dropping to 65°F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like Cool and blustery It was windy all night tonight. The weather history in AccuWeather doesn’t show it but most of the time the wind was perceptible and I clocked it on my uncalibrated RadioShack anemometer to have gusted to at least 14 MPH. I suspect that some of the gusts I didn’t clock might have been higher. I was wearing a fiberpile vest under my light jacket and was wishing I had a fiberpile sweater in stead so that my arms were also insulated. We definitely got that hint of fall that the farmer’s Almanac predicted but so far there is no indication that temperatures will go above 90°F. I didn’t notice it in my binocular, but Peter said there was a lot of boiling. At the end of the night when I looked at the Moon in his scope I could see continuous boiling across the entire disk of the Moon. Transparency Excellent Seeing III
Instruments	Golden Gate 7x35 binocular – Charlie Teleport 10" Donsonisn reflector – Peter 2" Pentax 40mm, 70° FoV, 40x 1.25" TV Plossl 32mm, 50° FoV, 68x 2" TV Nagler 17mm, 82° FoV, 90x 1.25" TV Nagler 13mm, 82° FoV, 120x Pentax binocular - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Jupiter Constellation Oph Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070902.2145 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 38.0" Magnitude -2.2 Central Meridian I/II 345.59°/185.76° Altitude 15° Moons Starry Night Starter graphic It looked bloated and I could not see any moons in the binocular. In the telescope the banding is more pronounced tonight than it was last night.

Target M31, Andromeda Galaxy, NGC224 Constellation And Category DSO: SpGal Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070902.2212 EDT Comments Not Seen

Target Neptune Constellation Cap Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070902.2300 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU hm Distance (from Sun) Au Angular Size 2.3" Magnitude 7.8 Altitude 33° I was not able to find the planet in my binocular. Later Peter found it in the scope. It looked a little bigger than a star. I did not detect any color, it looked faint gray. If I hadn’t been told that it was a planet I would have taken it for a star.

Target Perseus Constellation Per Category DSO Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20070902 EDT Comments I worked down through Perseus tonight looking for DSOs and didn’t find any of the open clusters that are marked in the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas.

My binoculars say they have an apparent FoV of 10°. Peter figures it is more like 8°. I performed a drift test tonight using Dabih, β Cap to see what the true FoV is. Actually I performed half of a drift test since the star was already past the meridian and I didn’t want to fool with trying to get it to pass through the center of the FoV. I put the star in the center of the FoV and timed it as it drifted out and doubled that time.

TFoV = T * 0.2507 * Cos(Dec)
T = 14:34.32 * 2 = 29:09.04 = 1749.04 seconds
Dec = -14.46

TFoV = T * 0.2507 * Cos(Dec)
TFoV = 1749.04 * 0.2507 * Cos(-14.46)
TFoV = 1749.04 * 0.2507 * Cos(-14.46)
TFoV = 139.1092 arcseconds = 2.318486’

Target Moon Constellation Tau Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 200709023.0100 EDT Comments Lunation 1047 Phase Waning Gibbous Age 21.25 Distance Light Time (from earth) 366,822 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 60.3% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 164.3° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 344.3° Libration in Latitude -6°07’ Libration in Longitude 4°21’ Magnitude -12.26 Angular Size 32.58' Altitude 28° Virtual Moon Atlas graphic At 0126 EDT the satellite UGA 3A H2A was supposed to pass over the disk of the Moon. Diameter 3.4" Moves Toward 9:15 Duration 0.95 sec Position Angle 63° Peter thought it was big enough for us to see it and we were all watching but nobody saw anything. I remarked at the time that I expected the satellite to cut a chord across part of the bright limb exiting the disk around Aristarchus but although I had a Position Angle figure I wasn't sure how to use it and didn't know if the satellite would be coming from above or below 9:15. When I got home I discovered that the index maps in each corner of the S&T Field Map of the Moon have a crude PA scale on them. I also have a program called Moon View that I got from the Dutch Occultation Association that is designed only to display position angles for any date, time and location, but the program was on my computer at home and does not appear to work on a Vista box. Starry Night Starter graphic The Moon was going to occult some of the Pleiades tonight so I spent a lot of time watching it approach them. Celano, Sterope and 22 Tau had all disappeared in the glare of the Moon before 0100 EDT. Peter observed Taygeta being occulted at 0135:17 EDT. Star Disappears Reappears Taygeta 0133 EDT 0226 EDT 18 Tau 0151 EDT 0241 EDT Sterope 0156 EDT 0248 EDT 22 Tau 0159 EDT 0246 EDT Times are approximations from Starry Night Starter The Moon looks like it is nearly at Last Quarter but that event will not occur until 2232 EDT tonight. The terminator is just west of Maurolycus. We spent some time looking for Mare Orientale in the poor seeing. I think Peter and I don’t have the same definition for what constitutes seeing the object. He says he has been seeing it the past few nights when the Moon has been showing more of its western limb each night. I could see roughness on the limb that I think was Montes Cordillera which are a part of the feature. But when I talk about seeing Mare Orientale I mean being able to see into the crater and see the rounded arc of the wall. We did locate some splotches of gray way over on the limb that look like they are Lacus Vertis. We were into western Mare Serenitatis and just about to move down along the terminator into Lacus Lenitatis when the police chased us off. We did see some nice features up in Mare Serenitatis: Valentine Dome (Marked on the S&T Field Map of the Moon but not in the Atlas of the Moon although they are both drawn by the same cartographer) Linne Dorsum Von Cotta Dorsum Gast Dorsum Buckland The best view of these areas us in the Rükl Atlas of the Moon, plate 23

The sprinklers out near the fence never came on tonight but we did sense some sprinkler aerosol blowing up onto us in the wind.