21 October 2007

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1840 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 69°F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like Very Pleasant It was a beautiful early twilight night, almost summer weather. Transparency Excellent Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye observing
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Rob Smith Jack DiStefano Nick DiStefano

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation UMa, Cam, Cas, Per, And, Psc Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071021.1840 EDT Comments When we got out of the HoS Rob looked up and said he saw stars. I looked up and he was joking about a plane crossing the sky since last week we had stood out there watching an Iridium flare. As I looked up a bright light tracked across the sky to the NE disappearing over the employee parking lot to the east. It did not have navigation lights flashing and was very bright so I was reasonably certain it was the ISS and checking in Heavens Above I found that it was a Mag -1.4 pass. I didn’t think to look at my watch immediately after we saw it but when I did I estimated that we had seen the satellite at 1840 EDT, I was off by 2-3 minutes. Event EDT Alt. Az. Pass Begins 1837:12 10° NW Maximum Altitude 1839:50 39° NNE Pass Ends 1842:27 10° E

I didn’t have any optics with me which was a tactical error. The air was much clearer tonight than it has been and from the extended forecast it sounds like tonight might have been my best chance of seeing C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) I looked in that direction from the subway platform and it was very clear around Arcturus but Murfid was blocked by the opposing subway platform sign and houses.

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2045-0100 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 69°F – 64°F Wind Gentle Breeze gusting to Moderate Breeze Humidity Moderate Feels Like Very Cool NOAA wasn’t predicting as much wind was we experienced. I had been noticing that even my little scope on a very steady tripod and without the additional surface area of the shroud was being buffeted when Peter mentioned how windy it was so I got out my anemometer to see just how windy it was. I clocked sustained winds of 8 MPH and a gust peak of 11 MPH. I think my anemometer reads conservatively, although I have no evidence to back that up. I know the Weather Service anemometer reads lower winds than we experience and we can see Belvedere Castle, where it is located, from TotL. They reported: EDT Wind Gusts 2051 6.9 -- 2151 5.8 -- 2251 4.6 21.9 2351 4.6 -- 2451 10.4 -- Transparency Good-Excellent Seeing III
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie Celestron Omni 20mm (21x) Celestron Omni 2x Barlow 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 Aqr Category Lunar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071021.2100 EDT Comments Lunation 1049 Phase Waxing Gibbous Age 10.85 Distance Light Time (from earth) 370280 km s Elongation ° % Illuminated 77.3% Morning Terminator Colongitude (λ E) 40.2° Evening Terminator Colongitude (λ W) 220.2° Libration in Latitude 1°11’ Libration in Longitude -7°20’ Magnitude -12.54 Angular Size 32.27’ Altitude 38° Virtual Moon Atlas graphic Another night of nothing but the Moon. I made a few comparative views between Peter’s scope and mine. But the wind wasn’t conducive to aided viewing. Moon’s Terminator Outside of Feature Inside of « Philolaus   « J. Herschel   « Jura Mountains   « Sinus Iridum   Montes Harbinger » « Mare Imbrium »   Mons Gruithuisen δ »   Mons Gruithuisen γ » « Kepler   « Enke   « Gassendi   « Doppelmayer   « Lee   « Schiller   « Scheiner   « Blancanus   The wind was buffeting the scope so much that I lost interest in trying to find smaller features and didn’t even look for things I had indentified on my map that I wanted to try to find. Peter found a star that he thought had just come from behind the moon but when I looked I couldn’t see it in either scope. He took another look and realized that it had just been occulted. Later he found another star off the dark limb that I had a lot of trouble seeing and he did see it disappear behind the Moon. Peter also pointed out some peaks inside the terminator near Gassendi that were starting to catch light. I was able to see one of them in my scope. He also pointed out a nice shoadow stretching eastward behind Promontory Laplace.

We had another dog incident tonight. This time it was my equipment. There were two dogs coming from opposite directions, off-leash, that decided they wanted to play between our tripods and against the legs of mine. The owners eventually caught up to them and just stand there. Isn’t that cute, the dogs are playing near all this expensive equipment? Most dog owners seem to have no concept that their animals barking and running around people may be an imposition on those people. Peter brought up the point that the dogs always smell our bags and that that is getting dog hair in them which then works its way into the optics. Not to mention them urinating and defecating around us and our possessions (fortunately not on them – yet). I think we are at part to blame for what is going on around us because we have not asked the owners to keep their animals under control. There are a few dogs who come through that are well behaved and under voice command, but they are the vast minority and the owners who exercise appropriate control of their animals in a public venue are rare. I can see TotL becoming a very dog unfriendly place.

We were about to pack up and call it an early night when I looked around and saw that Mars had crested the trees and Peter had prefiously mentioned that he wanted to see if it was large enough to make out any detail yet. We walked around a bit to see where it was and discovered that the top of Orion was becoming visible just to the left of the big tree to the NE of TotL. After negotiating which stars we were seeing we moved to the north side of the lawn to observe Mars. We also counted stars in Gemini and The Pleiades. I was seeing more stars in the Pleiades tonight than Peter, which is unusual. Previously I had said that I was having trougle with one of his eyepieces and that I suspected that my pupil size must be much smaller than it should be because I was having to move my eye around to see everything in his 2mm exit pupil. He had said at that time that it couldn’t be because I see about the same things he sees although I think he always sees a little deeper than I do. Regarding the eyepiece, I am wondering if my pupil was really smaller than 2mm because we were looking at the Moon which was Mag -12 and would be causing my pupil to constrict while using the same eyepiece to view a faint fuzzy it would be fully dilated.

Target Mars Constellation Gem Category Planet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071022.0030 EDT Comments Object Class Classical Planet Elongation ° Distance Light Time (from Earth) AU ms Distance (from Sun) AU Angular Size 11.2" Magnitude -0.4 Central Meridian 167.09 ° Altitude 59° I could not get a satisfactory view of Mars in my scope. Without the Barlow the view was almost acceptable. I think it was deeper in color in my scope and did look a dark orange, but when that circle of light got bigger in Peter’s scope the color was not as intense.

While we were finishing packing up we had a great discussion about color which branched out into numbers and sound.

It all started because Peter thought Mars was burnt orange and I thought it was a deep cream (I don’t remember the exact modifier I used for the color of the cream). He mentioned someone saying something they had seen was chartreuse and felt that that was a strange descriptor to use. Extrapolating from what he said later I think he was saying that it was strange to call something natural by the name of a made up color [but all color names are really made up]. He later wondered if all colors existed in nature (hence my comment above). My feeling was that all colors do exist even if we do not perceive them because color is the expression of a wavelength of light and all the possible wavelengths of light do exist. Peter likened it to numbers and asked if all number exits. My feeling on that is that no numbers exist, they are a manmade construct. There may be three oranges in the bowl, but they are three distinct entities, each one is an orange. They are just three oranges in our mind. Peter was able to accept that but still was not convinced that all colors exist and that is when one of us brought up the question of a sound and does it exist if no one hears it. If a tree falls in the wilderness and no one is there does it make a sound? We are on opposite sides of the fence on this one too. Peter is sure that there is no sound unless it is perceived and I feel that sound is a vibration of molecules that still takes place of we are not there to hear it. Peter is going to Wikipedia that one to see what the definitive answer is. I hadn’t thought of it at the time, but my argument would be that sound is the vibration of molecules of something. They are in contact with the air at some point and since they are vibrating they will set the molecules of the air in motion which will cause a wind, no matter how small, which will at some point come in contact with the leaves of the forest and set them in motion causing more noise. The question seems to be more one of philosophy than of science. If something is not perceived does it exist?

It was another one of our great discussions where we don’t necessarily agree, but we respect each other’s points of view.

By the time we were done out discussion and Peter had gotten into the shadow of a big tree to make some more constellation pictures it was nearly 0100 EDT. I suggested that we be on the way out of the park within the next five minutes since I had already seen two police vehicles cruising the area with their spotlights turned on. We don’t know if they were looking for someone(s) of it was regular curfew enforcement, but after last night it wasn’t worth sticking around to find out.