31 December 2007

The Moon and the year travel and pass away; Also the day, also the wine. Also the flesh passes away to the place of its quietness. Mayan

Observing Location	Chief Dennis L. Devlin Park, Bronx, NY
Observational Period	1300-1315 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 49°F Wind Light Breeze gusting to Gentle Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.94" Hg Falling Feels Like Cool Wind Chill 32°F It is comfortable until the wind blows. Transparency Good Seeing I
Instruments	25x30 “spyglass” telescope - Charlie I cleaned it again, this time using computer screen cleaner, and it looks like I got most of the small dust, but now it lools like there are two huge paramecia floating in the FoV; probably drops of screen cleaner that dried leaving a residue
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Sgr Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071231.1300 EST Comments Distance Light Time 0.983 AU 8m 11s Angular Size 32' 35" Altitude 25.3° Heliographic Latitude (B0) -2.92° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 324.44° Position Angle (P) 2.47° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2065 Nothing seen.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots)

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2030-0030 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 39° F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.14” Hg Steady Feels Like The sky looked splotchy gray but I can see stars. When I picked up my tripod case at the end of the session the upeard-facing surface of it was encrusted with frost. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Brunton 8x21 compact binocular – Charlie Nikon CoolPix 990 digital camera – Charlie Fisheye Converter FC-E8 Wide Converter WC-E63 Tele Converter TC-E2
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target M45, the Pleiades, NGC1432 Constellation Tau Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071231.2040 EST Comments I could see four or five stars naked-eye and six with the binocular.

Target C41, Hyades, Melote 25 Constellation Tau Category DSO: OCl Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071231.2045 EST Comments I cab split the θ1 and θ2 double stars naked eye and with the binocular I can see the Cyclops but not all of the component stars.

Target 8P/Temple Constellation Psc Category Comet Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20071231.2055 EST Comments I located the comet first naked-eye then got it in the binocular but can’t hold the small, light optic steady enough to describe it other than a point of light similar to a star. Planetarium is in good agreement with the MPC ephemeris data for 31Dec07 but appears to be about two days behind it by 5Jan08. I have plotted the location of 8P/Tuttle from late December through early April of next year by which time it will be to faint for me to see it even with the aid of SAR.

I tried making pictures of Orion

That big orange dot in the upper left corner is Mars. It just may gat to be as big as the Moon.

Then I tried making pictures with the Fisheye Converter pointing at zenith. I was getting pixels lit up with a 4-second, f/8(?) exposure. But there is more dirt on the lens that there are stars in the image.

When the fireworks started going off at midnight I made pictures as fast as I could.

I had set the camera to manual focus at infinity but found that each time I set it to self-timer it reset itself to Macro so all the stars, street lamps, and me are out of focus. I remember that there is some trick to fool the camera into staying focused at infinity when you put it into self-timer mode but I can’t remember what it is. I will have to check with Peter and see if he knows.

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Sunspots Observed

The Sun has finally developed some spots so I have done a bit of observing when the weather was conducive to that activity.

Observing Hours for the Year 2007

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	4.25	12	0.35	7.75	9	0.86	12.00	16	0.75
Feb	3.50	14	0.30	20.75	5	2.04	24.25	15	1.17
Mar	9.25	16	0.40	36.75	10	2.76	46.00	17	1.71
Apr	4.00	14	0.38	22.50	7	2.83	26.5	16	1.70
May	11.75	16	0.45	31.00	9	2.97	42.75	20	1.80
Jun	7.00	15	0.46	18.50	8	2.86	25.50	18	1.74
Jul	5.75	18	0.43	30.00	10	2.88	35.75	19	1.76
Aug	8.00	13	0.45	42.25	14	2.91	50.25	19	1.88
Sep	2.25	6	0.38	44.50	15	2.97	46.25	16	2.89
Oct	1.25	3	0.42	20.50	11	1.86	21.75	14	1.55
Nov	0.00	0	0.00	21.00	13	1.62	21.00	13	1.62
Dec	4.76	13	0.37	13.25	7	1.89	18.00	13	1.38
TOTAL	61.75	140	0.44	308.75	118	2.62	370.00	196	1.89

Year-to-Year Observing Comparison