20 October 2007

Observing Location	HOS & 111 St #7 train subway platform, Corona, Queens, NY
Observational Period	1830-1930 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Isolated Clouds Temperature 70°F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like Very comfortable The humidity is a lot lower today than it has been and the sky appears very clear. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Jupiter Constellation Oph Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071020.1830 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation 50.3° Distance Light Time (from Earth) 5.27 AU 48m41s Distance (from Sun) 5.85 AU Angular Size 33.6"x31.5” Magnitude -1.9 Central Meridian I/II 236.00°/70.98° Altitude 18.5° Moons Starry Night Starter graphic I started out on Jupiter which was the only thing I could find in the early twilight sky other than Vega and Altair. It looked big and a little bit elongated but I couldn’t see any moons.

Target C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) Constellation Boo Category Comet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071020.1830 EDT Comments Cartes du Ciel graphic I found Arcturus without problems. Murfid became visible in the binocular right about the end of nautical twilight but was right above a stripe of cloud. By 1900 there was lots of scintillation in Arcturus and Murfid was blinking in and out in the cloud. I moved several blocks north to the subway platform where I thought the elevation might help me out a little. Arcturus was still easily visible but Murfid only appeared once. Object Mag. Comments C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) 5.8 not seen Arcturus -0.03   Murfid 2.68   τ Boo 4.5 not seen 20 Boo 4.84 not seen ζ Boo 3.78 not seen 14 Boo 5.53 not seen I wasn’t expecting to see the comet when I was having trouble seeing Murfid. This comet is just to low on the horizon. I found that Arfid and Murfid fit in the Diagonal FoV of the Bruntons with a little room to spare. They are 5° apart and the binocular is marked for a 7⪚ FoV. Dhube and Merak are 5.4° apart and they just fit in the vertical FoV.

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Astronomy Templates

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2330-0130 EDT I had a sea chantey sing tonight and stopped off at TotL on the way home since Peter and Kin were supposed to be there. Peter was.
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 61°F Wind Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like A little chilly Transparency Good Seeing II-III
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular – Charlie Takahashi 102mm F/8.2 refractor - Peter 1.5" TeleVue Plossl 32mm, ##° FoV, 31.8x 1.25" TV Nagler 13mm, 82° FoV, 97.7x 1.25" TV Plossl 7mm, 82° FoV, 181.4x
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

Target Moon Constellation Cap Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071020 EDT Comments Lunation 1049 Phase Waxing Gibbous Age 9.94d Distance Light Time (from earth) 377,667 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 68.4% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 29.0° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 209.0° Libration in Latitude 2°27’ Libration in Longitude -8°09’ Magnitude -12.36 Angular Size 31.64' Altitude 18° Virtual Moon Atlas graphic By the time I got to TotL the Moon was already getting low and there was a lot of boiling. It is the only thing I looked at, mostly through Peter’s scope while he talked with two dog owners and photographers. I didn't have my Moon map with me so had to try to remember when I got home what I had seen, and I didn't have something to tell me what to look for in areas where I wasn't seeing anything myself. I got a few glimpses of the Alpine Valley, an indication that the seeing was not steady. In the western portion of Mare Imbrium there were a couple of nose dorsae coming out of the terminator that were under nice lighting: Dorsum Helm and Dorsum Zirkel

Peter had the refractor out tonight and I was having trouble getting myself oriented in it. I much prefer the view in a reflector these days.

We had another near dog incident again. There were three dogs there ranging from small to large. The largest one had a ball that the middle sized one wanted. The big one would park himself right next to the legs of Peter’s tripod and around his feet. Several times they ran between the legs of the tripod. The owners seem to be oblivious to this activity and unconcerned over the possible consequences. And one of these dogs was one of the ones involved in the demise of my Canon binocular. Nothing was ever said to the dogs.

While Peter was packing up he gave me his digital camera and asked my to take random pictures of the stars and in particular Andromeda. He had been propping the camera up on a towel on the ground and just pointing it in the general area of a constellation with the lens set to wide angle and the rest in Push-Here-Dummy mode. I gave it a try and think I was getting some stars in a few of the pictures but the battery ran down when I got over to Pegasus and Andromeda. We switched to his older camera and its battery ran down on the first exposure.

We were packed up shortly after 0100 EDT and on the way out of the park at 0110 EDT when a police cruiser came by. They stopped and were very courteous (it was guys who knows us and often stops to talk, and the guys always seem to be more courteous than the women who are very confrontational and let you know they are in charge). He said he hadn’t seen us around lately and asked if we were leaving the park then. This I take to be another one of those “I don’t want to have to give you a ticket so don’t make me” comments. I didn’t recognize the other officer and didn’t notice any stripes on his sleeve so don’t know if he was some sort of supervisor or a hard nose of if there is a big press to clear the park because of the upswing in the crime rate.

This afternoon Peter sent out an email saying that he had picked up copies of the Observer's Handbook 2008 for Kin and me and he delivered them tonight. On the way home on the subway I scanned it and see that they have taken my suggestion about making a tear-off corner on the month-by-month pages so that you can easily turn to the current month. Last year I emailed them with several suggestions for things that I thought would make the Handbook better. One was to tell them that I cut off the lower right corner of those pages for past months so that I can easily page to the current information and suggested that they perforate the pages there so it would be easy to just tear the corner off. Due to the expense involved in the extra production step they didn't do that, but they did put a black corner down there with a dashed line along it and a pair of scissors. I think I will write them to tell them that I appreciate it and suggest that it would be even more useful if they printed the month number in the triangle so you wouldn't even have to cut the corner off. There are some tables in the book (nearest stars, brightest stars, nearest and brightest galaxies, etc. that will need to be charted out in Excel relative to the Milky Way to see of there is anything that can be learned from the exercise.