30 July 2011

Observing Location	BP
Observational Period	1640-1705 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 90° F Wind Calm Wind Chill Effect Heat Index 89° F Humidity 33% Barometric Pressure 29.86" Hg 6 KNYC METAR 302051Z AUTO VRB06KT 10SM CLR 32/14 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP128 T03220139 56008 TSNO Feels Like hot Transparency Excellent Seeing I
Instruments	Celestron C70 Mini Mak spotting scope- Charlie Kendrick filter cell with Baader AstroSolar filter film stock tabletop tripod FAR Laboratories Helio-Pod Empire Magnetic Polycast Protractor Planetarium for Palm on Tungsten|T3
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20110730 EDT Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 33.4" Altitude 38° 47' Heliographic Latitude (B0) 5.63° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 357.48° Parallactic Angle (P) 10.01° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2113 Comments The sun is nearly conjuncted in R.A. with M44. A very active sun with three sunspot groups, 4 large spots with penumbra and a group of many small spots. The sun burped today at group 1261 producing a short M9-class flare but no CME. LightTrac graphic   Groups Spots R North 3 19 49 South 0 0 0 Total 3 19 49 NASA Sunspot Number 88 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) 3D Sun graphic Solar Dynamics Observatory inage from SWx Monitor Group 1260 Heliographic Latitude 7° Heliographic Longitude 8° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Dho Helio graphic Solar Dynamics Observatory image from SWx Monitor Group 1261 Heliographic Latitude 8° Heliographic Longitude 38° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Eai Helio graphic Solar Dynamics Observatory image from SWx Monitor Group 1262 Heliographic Latitude 8° Heliographic Longitude 57° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Dho Helio graphic Solar Dynamics Observatory graphic from SWx Monitor

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	2045-2300 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear becoming Scattered-Broken Temperature 83° F falling to 81°F Wind Calm increasing to Light Breeze Wind Chill Effect Heat Index none Humidity 44% increasing to 49% Barometric Pressure 29.96" Hg increasing to 30.00: Hg 1 KNYC METAR 310051Z AUTO 01003KT 10SM CLR 28/15 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP144 T02830150 TSNO Feels Like warm Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Celestron c70 Mini Mak spotting scope Celestron Outland 8x42 binocular Planetarium for Palm on Tungsten|T3 Empire Magnetic Polycast Protractor
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Lost without a moon Where has this moon gone? the moon that used to brighten up the night sky, And the moon that used to shine Brighter than any star, The moon that used to bring to me This beautiful light, For this moon used to lighten up My heart, Now that this moon is gone I must rely on the stars to bring me light, This moon left me alone, alone to suffer and think empty thoughts, And now i know that I am lost, Oh where has this moon gone? Oscar Aceves

The Moon was New this afternoon at 1440 EDT so the sky should have been at its darkest. As Scorpius moved west I was able to see stars low over the southern skyline.

The only objective I had for this session was to try to see Vesta, which is currently at opposition so at its brightest but doesn't clear the treetops until around 2200 EDT.

Since it was very hot today, the start of another heat wave, and I wasn't going after anything in particular I traveled light. Walking past the McGraw-Hill building the thermometer there read 90&def;F although the Central Park weather station was only reporting 83°F. It was uncomfortable making the walk whatever the temperature was.

I was able to get several targets into the eyepiece but it isn't easy. My tripod isn't tall enough to get the eyepiece at a convenient height for pointing at anything much above 30° altitude which doesn't leave many targets. The easiest way for me to find anything is to figure out where it is relative to the horizon, point at that spot on the horizon, then look up the object's altitude in Planetarium and elevate the scope using my protractor. From there I have to sweep the neighborhood until I find the object or something I can identify so I can start a star hop. Using the binocular to identify the major stars of Capricornus I was able to star hop to Vesta with the Mini Mak.

A fair number of people stopped to take a look early in the evening so I kept the scope pointed at Saturn, which is the only thing in the sky that I can find with that scope that is worth looking at. Later, after foot traffic subsided I pointed at

• Aldeberan
• the Sting of Sco
• Porrima

I tried for Alberio but the clouds closed in on that part of the sky before I could locate it.

Around 2200 EDT, after I was by myself, I moved over to TOTL_W to search for (4) Vesta.

By 2300 EDT the sky had filled with small puffy clouds and it looked like it was heading towards overcast so I packed up and walked the West Drive out of the park. Along the way at 2320 EDT down near Sheep Meadow the sky was perfectly clear and remained so through the rest of my walk home.

17 July 2011

Observing Location	Bryant Park
Observational Period	0800-0830 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Light Haze Clear Temperature 72° F Wind Calm Wind Chill Effect Heat Index 72° F Humidity 73% Barometric Pressure 30.18" Hg 1 KNYC METAR 171151Z AUTO VRB03KT 10SM CLR 23/18 A3020 RMK AO2 SLP218 T02280178 10244 20222 51008 TSNO Feels Like mild Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	Celestron C70 Mini Mak - Charlie Celestron stock 20x-75x zoom eyepiece Kendrick #6004 filter cell with Baader AstroSolar filter film Helio-Pod Celestron tabletop tripod
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Session Objective	sunspot count ISS across disk of Sun

Target ISS crosses the disk of the Sun Constellation Gem Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20110717.0809 EDT Time 0809:38.48 EDT Separation 0.205° Position Angle 162.8° Transit duration 0.86s Angular diameter 34.5" size=109.0m x 73.0m x 27.5m Satellite at Azimuth 83.9° E Altitude 26.1° Distance 801.9 km In a clock-face concept, the satellite will seem to move toward 7:47 Angular Velocity 22.9'/s CalSky graphics Comments When I woke up there were no shadows or bright light in my little sliver of sky so I figured it was cloudy enough that I wouldn't have a chance of seeing a shadow pass behind the clouds. I checked the visible and IR satellite imagery in WeatherBug and they both showed clouds extending well to the east so I didn't hurry getting out of bed. Then all of a sudden the sun appeared. I was thinking the pass wasn't until 38 or 48 minutes past the hour so didn't hurry getting out of the apartment. When I got to the first floor I remembered that I had forgotten to add an event alarm to my Palm and had to ride the elevator back up to check the time to set the alarm at the right time. That is when I discovered that I had 10 minutes to get to the park and get set up. I made it in the nick of time and shortly after my wrist watch alarm went off I thought I saw something whispy with a dragonfly shape appear on the Sun's disk. The two occurrences were in the right relative positions. But I think they were too big to have been the ISS.

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20110717.0810 EDT Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 31.4" Altitude 26° 10' Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.48° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 174.70° Parallactic Angle (P) 4.33° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 3D Sun graphic Comments Initially I picked up the three most prominent groups and even saw indications of smaller spots next to the primary spot. I was not able to detect penumbra around any of the spots at any magnification. Later I located the group I labeled as 4 in my diagram, which appeared as a smudge. I did not see group 1256.   Groups Spots R North 2 3 23 South 2 3 23 Total 4 6 46 NASA Sunspot Number 75 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 1250 (1) Heliographic Latitude -17° Heliographic Longitude 127° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Axx Helio graphic Unnumbered Group (2) Heliographic Latitude 35° Heliographic Longitude 125° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Axo Helio graphic Group 1251 (3) Heliographic Latitude 20° Heliographic Longitude 172° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Axx Helio graphic Group 1254 (4) Heliographic Latitude -30° Heliographic Longitude 194° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Axo Helio graphic I performed a count based on the images below and came up with a Sunspot Number of 73. SOHO graphics from SWx Monitor Unnumbered Group, Group 1250 and Group 1250 (clockwise from top) Group 1251, Group 1256 and Group 1254 (top to bottom)

13 July 2011

Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1600-1700 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 84° F Wind Gentle Breeze Wind Chill Effect Heat Index 84° F Humidity 46% Barometric Pressure 29.73" Hg 7 KNYC METAR 131951Z AUTO 26007KT 220V300 10SM SCT055 29/16 A2975 RMK AO2 SLP065 T02890161 TSNO Feels Like very hot Transparency Excellent Seeing I
Instruments	Celestron 70mm Mini Mak - Charlie Celestron 25x-75x zoom eyepiece (stock with the Mini Mak) Kendrick #6004 filter cell with Baader Astro Solar visual filter film FAR Laboratories Helio-Pod finder Empire Magnetic POLYCAST Protractor
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Session Objectives	to finally get the Sun into the eyepiece of the Mini Mak - achieved, to figure out where the Sun's image should be on the Helio-Pod when it is in the eyepiece - achieved, to perform a sunspot count - achieved, and to observe the ISS with Shuttle attached pass across the disk of the Sun - not observed.

I used Sly Safari v2.1.2 to determine the altitude of the sun which I set on my protractor. I held the protractor on top of the scope barrel and aligned the plumb bob with the appropriate index mark. The sun wasn't there when I swung the scope across the sky but at one point there was a flash of light on the bottom edge of the mirror so I scanned down at that location until I found the sun.

The scope is going to be good for what I got it for, grab-and-go solar observing. At 25x the view was crisp and easy to focus. I saw all the major spots although one of then I interpreted as one spot when it resolved into two at 50x. The view is a little softer at 50x but still good enough to resolve additional detail. 75x is nearly worthless. It is soft and hard to achieve critical focus.

I had the Helio-Pod mounted on the left side of the scope near the eyepiece and found that when the Sun was centered in the eyepiece its image was offset high and to the left on the bulseye but just outside of the central target. I could reliably get the Sun into the eyepiece using the Helio-Pod knowing this.

Target Sunspots Constellation Gem Category Solar Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20110713.1610 EDT Distance Light Time 1.02 AU 8m 27s Angular Size 31' 31.1" Altitude 46° 18' Heliographic Latitude (B0) 4.17° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 216.60° Parallactic Angle (P) 2.93° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Comments At low power I saw Group 2050 in the SE quadrant composed of three spots and Group 2051 in the NE quadrant composed of a single spot. At medium power the easternmost trailing spot of group 2050 resolved into two smaller spots. Solar Dynamics Observatory graphic from SWx Monitor   Groups Spots R North 1 1 11 South 1 4 14 Total 1 5 25 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 1250 Heliographic Latitude -15° Heliographic Longitude 255° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Cso This group is composed of a large P-spot with penumbra trailed by three small spots without penumbra. Helio graphic Group 1251 Heliographic Latitude 53° Heliographic Longitude 262° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2112 Mcintosh System Hhx I can only see one large spot with penumbra in this group. Helio graphic The official sunspot number if 62 but I can't see how they get it that high unless they are counting spots on the back side of the Sun. NASA graphic from 3D Sun

Target ISS Crosses disk of Sun Constellation Gem Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20110713.1648:42.09 EDT Transit Begins 1648:41.09 EDT Transit duration 0.83s Separation 0.089° Position Angle 199.8° Angular diameter 45.4" Size 109.0m x 73.0m x 27.5m Satellite at Azimuth 266.1° W Altitude 38.8° Distance 609.1 km In a clock-face concept, the satellite will seem to move toward 10:09 Angular Velocity 35.5'/s Satellites v 1.51 graphic CalSky graphic CalSky graphic Comments Not Seen

11 July 2011

Drip Rock 2100-2300 Celestron 70mm Mini Mak

All images drawn with the Celestron 70mm Mini Mak's zoom lens set at 25x without the aid of reference materials.

Mare Humorum

Mare Imbrium

South Polar Region

Mare Crisium

Mare Serenitatis

10 July 2011

TotL 2100-2400 6" Dob

9 July 2011

TotL 2015-0015 6" Dob

5 July 2011