Asteroids Seen Through Year-end 2005

So far a total of 6 asteroids have been spotted, confirmed and documented in emails sent to various mailing lists or with observing notes.

The latest found is the bright asteroid 4 Vesta.

Details and links for Vesta have been added to this post.

Click on hyperlinks in bulleted list to jump to the reports:

• 63 Ausonia: m10.1, 16-Sep-2003, TeleVue-76
  • 63 Ausonia: follow-up observation — 29-Sep-2003
• 29 Amphitrite: m9.3, 30-Oct-2003, TeleVue-76
• 6 Hebe: m8.9, 24-Jan-2004, TeleVue-76
• 1 Ceres: m7.5, 8-Apr-2005, Fujinon 10x70's
• 3 Juno: m7.6, 18-Dec-2005, Fujinon 10x70's
• 4 Vesta: m6.5, 30-Dec-2005, Fujinon 10x70's • 2 Pallas: no writeup for Pallas exists

4 Vesta in Gemini: 30-Dec-2005

Position of 4 Vesta on 30 December 2005

I thought I would ‘officially’ add one of the easier asteroids to my short list. Tonight at 8:45p, from my NE (Manhattan north) facing window, I spotted the asteroid with Fujinon 10x70's.

Vesta is currently situated around the ‘waist’ of the eastern twin in the constellation Gemini.

The two images below were generated with ‘Planetarium for the Palm’ (PftP).

The first image is a wide view with a limiting magnitude of 6.0. The asteroid is the rock symbol. The telrad circles on both images are 5.3° & 7.4°.

The second image is a detailed view with a limiting magnitude of 7.5. The brightest star below and to the left of Vesta is δ Geminorum (Wasat).

δ Gem and the 4 bright 5th - 6th mag. stars below it form a ‘kite’ shape. Vesta can be seen as the tail of the kite.

The stars surrounding Vesta form another smaller / dimmer kite. If the δ Gem kite is pointing downwards then the three 7th mag. stars along with Vesta form a kite that points to the left.

Vesta appears, to my eyes, as bright as the star to the right of the Vesta kite. This star is the 6.4 magnitude high proper motion star HIP 34608 or LTT (Lyten Two Tenth's) 11989.

Screen Shots from Planetarium for the Palm

Naked Eye Attempt: Crescent Venus

Click image for U.S. Naval Observatory's ‘Apparent Disk of Solar System Object’. The image was created for the time of the sighting. Click here for a full list of ‘Data Services’ from the USNO.

On Tuesday (27-Dec) during lunch break I attempted to see if Venus' crescent would be visible naked eye. It's close to 55 arc seconds across! A few minutes were spent searching. It was found but it was a few degrees higher than expected. This goes to show how critical it is to be looking in the right spot.

Seeing Venus in full daylight is not as difficult as you would think. My latest sightings were made as Venus transited the meridian (azimuth = 180° — due south). Viewing Venus when it is at its highest point during the day may make or break sighting the crescent.

The attempt was made around 1:40pm. The crescent was not spotted and I would like to meet the person that can distinguish Venus' crescent naked eye. This would seem to require a rare level of visual acuity or one may need to view Venus when it is higher than a mere 30+ degrees above the horizon. This would place the planet above the haze.

Click the image below to view a chart of the Pleiades along with a depiction of the relative size of Venus compared to the distance of Pleiades members Pleione and Atlas — separation 5'04" (304 arc seconds). This distance is equivalent to stacking Venus five and a half times end to end. With Venus at nearly 55 arc seconds this works out to ~302 arc seconds.

Asteroids Seen Through 25-Dec-2005

Laying my finger on how many asteroids I've sighted I couldn't find a single place to look up the details. This is the purpose for this post.

Left: TeleVue-76, Right: Fujinon 10x70's

The following observation reports were found online or on my harddisk. Just in case there's a need to sign up for these Yahoo! Groups I've quoted the messages in full.

Click on hyperlinks in bulleted list to jump to the reports:

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• 63 Ausonia: m10.1, 16-Sep-2003, TeleVue-76
  • 63 Ausonia: follow-up observation — 29-Sep-2003
• 29 Amphitrite: m9.3, 30-Oct-2003, TeleVue-76
• 6 Hebe: m8.9, 24-Jan-2004, TeleVue-76
• 1 Ceres: m7.5, 8-Apr-2005, Fujinon 10x70's
• 3 Juno: m7.6, 18-Dec-2005, Fujinon 10x70's
• 4 Vesta & 2 Pallas: no writeups for either asteroid exists

63 Ausonia

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From Yahoo! Group ‘StarryNights’ — message #19023:

Asteroid: 63 Ausonia
Discovery details: 63 Ausonia is a Main Belt asteroid discovered 10 Feb. 1861 by Annibale De Gasparis in France.
Date observed: Tuesday, 16 Sep 2003
Visual magnitude: 10.1
Distance from earth: 120.1 million miles
Opposition date (mag.): 12 Sep 2003 (10.0)
Equipment: 76mm refractor, TeleVue-76
Eyepieces: 22mm Nagler IV (22x), 8mm Radian (60x)

Using the ‘Bright Minor Planets 2003‘ I chose 63 Ausonia to test the ability of the TV-76 to see this dimly in the center of New York City so I took the scope to Central Park.

After observing Mars and Uranus with a few friends and some interested people passing through the area I went to spot which was a bit more protected from the bright lights surrounding the Great Lawn.

From 10:30 to 11:00pm I used some charts produced with SkyMap Pro v. 9 and quickly (~10 minutes) located the general area of the asteroid. I scanned around with the 8mm and saw that 10.0 mag stars were visible so I felt seeing the asteroid would be a possibility.

Using the charts I found an equilateral triangle ~0.5° wide with a star directly in the center of the triangle centered on RA 23h 16m 45s / Dec 1° 34'. Below and to the right (the image was reversed left/right) were 3 stars roughly in a line ~6 minutes in length. I noted an object at the 9 o'clock position near the top line of stars.

This object was visible at 60x but not at 22x. The background needed to be darkened. Only when I returned home could I confirm for sure that this was 63 Ausonia. It was!

Hopefully tomorrow night is clear so I can check on the movement of the asteroid which should move approximately 15 minutes of arc WSW.

All the best.

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

63 Ausonia

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(follow-up observation)

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From Yahoo! Group ‘GuildOfManhattanSidewalkAstronomers’ — message #1693:

Text related to Ausonia preceded w/double asterisk (**):

Date observed: Monday, 29 September 2003
Objects:
• Confirm 63 Ausonia observation from 16 Sep 2003
• Double Star: F.G.W. Struve 2995
  • Mags A / B: 7.6 / 8.0
  • Separation: 5.2"
• Mars
• Test limiting magnitude of TeleVue-76
Telescope: 76 mm refractor (TV-76)
Eyepieces:
• 22mm Nagler T4 (22x / 3°46' fov)
• 8mm Radian (60x / 1°0' fov)
• 2x Barlow

Thought I'd go out tonight to observe a bit in NYC's Central Park *without* showing "stuff" to the public which is what I would normally do. I set up in a dark spot on one of the lawns away from the bright lampposts.

The dimmest star I could view naked eye was one of the dimmer bowl stars in the Little Dipper zeta UMi (mag 4.3). It is impossible to dark adapt even in a relatively dark location since lights are always in view.

The first object was Mars. I was surprised to see that the seeing was very steady. At 120x the south polar cap was both small and obvious and the dark markings were clear and sharp. I could've used a bit more power to tease out some of the markings and it would've been nice to confirm seeing a dark collar around the polar cap. I'm looking forward to picking up a 6mm Radian.

(**) The next thing was to check the area where I first observed 63 Ausonia on the evening of 16 Sep 2003. I haven't been able to confirm the sighting visually until tonight. On the 16th the asteroid was NW of a line of 3 stars centered on RA 27h 19m / dec. -1°53'. On the 16th Ausonia was approximately mag. 10.1. Tonight it was 10.5 and I wasn't looking to see the asteroid, just to confirm the sighting of the 16th. I saw that I could see down to magnitude 10.53 (TYC 5244-294-1) with the 8mm Radian and could see that the pattern [of] stars mentioned above no longer included the asteroid! Visual confirmation of the asteroid and a new test of the limiting magnitude of the TV-76 were accomplished -- in the heart of Manhattan.

There's a nice pattern of stars NW of the line of 3 mentioned above in the form of an equilateral triangle with a star in its center. The triangle spans approximately 25'. The center star is STF 2995 (HD 219542). This double is wonderful in a small refractor. The brightness of the components are nearly equal (the difference *is* visible) and the separation of nearly 5.2" is easy at 60x. At 120x the view wasn't nearly as pleasing since the triangle pattern fits nicely in the 8mm Radian *without* the Barlow.

All the best ...

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

29 Amphitrite

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From Yahoo! Group ‘StarryNights’ — message #19551:

Asteroid: 29 Amphitrite
Discovery details: 29 Amphitrite was discovered by Albert Marth in London at the William Bishop Observatory on March 1, 1854.
Date observed: Thu., 30 Oct 2003 - 10:00pm EST
Visual magnitude: 9.3
Distance from earth: 138.5 million miles (1.49AU)
Opposition date (mag.): 28 Nov 2003 (8.8)
Equipment: 76mm refractor, TeleVue-76
Eyepieces: 22mm Nagler IV (22x), 8mm Radian (60x), 6mm Radian (80x)

In my quest for 5 asteroids before the New Year I went out tonight to view 29 Amphitrite from Central Park in NYC.

I chose a "dark" spot away from direct lights on a lawn near a small body of water called Turtle Pond. I started off on the wrong foot by choosing beta [Tauri] instead of iota Aurigae to start the star hop. This wasted 10 or so minutes until I realized the mistake. In the future this shouldn't happen with this specific star since iota Aur is an obviously red star.

After a 2-field star hop from iota Aur to an equilateral triangle of stars approx. 45' long centered on RA 4h40m / Dec 30.25° WSW of iota Aur I looked for Amphitrite to the right (north) of the triangle but wasn't able to see it with the 22mm Nagler T4 (22x) ... the background wasn't dark enough.

With the 8mm Radian a 9.7 mag star on the right side of the triangle was visible and using this star (TYC 2373-2192-1) and one of the stars in the base of the triangle (TYC 2374-592-1 - mag 8.0) it was fairly easy to fix the position where the asteroid should be.

The brightness of Amphitrite was within the limit of the scope and with the 8mm Radian (60x) it appeared about as dim as the 9.7 mag star. I was expecting it to be a bit brighter. Is there a way to check if the 9.7 mag star listed above is accurate?

It's always a thrill to locate another solar system object. I will still need to confirm the sighting which should be fairly easy since the asteroid hasn't reached opposition yet.

Thanks to all for contributing to this, and other forums dedicated to amateur astronomy.

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

6 Hebe

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This was found on my hard drive. I can't find it posted on the web.

Location: Central Park's Turtle Pond
Date/time: 24 Jan 2004 10:15-11:50pm
Equipment: Televue-76 (f/6.3 76mm refractor)
Eyepieces:
• 22mm Nagler Type IV (22x)
• 8mm Radian (60x)
• 6mm Radian (80x)
Temperature: 11-10°F / wind chill near 0°F

I arrived at Turtle Pond at 10:45pm with the express purpose of observing a "life" asteroid — 6 Hebe. The asteroid is currently magnitude 8.9 about 16.5 minutes east of the star HR 2728 (Bright Star Catalog).

Tonight I brought a chair which helped since it allowed me to easily study each star field in the 22mm e/p. It was an easy 2 field hop from Gomeisa (beta Canis Minoris). At the last stop the asteroid was easily spotted east of HR 2728 since there are no stars in the area close the mag. of Hebe.

Studying the field and noting down all the stars seen I determined (after arriving home) that I was able to see a star down to mag 10.7 (TYC 770-1716-1). This is teaching me about the limits of a 76mm refractor in the midst of NYC's light pollution.

Observing at Turtle Pond without an LRS (light reduction system) in the form of a well placed towel is no longer possible for me knowing how well the skies look with at least one in place.

The big problem with the lights is glare in the eyepiece which makes it almost impossible to locate a "dim" object when moving the telescope. Two towels are great and three would phenomenal.

The location I was at tonight is surrounded by 3 lamp posts and is the place where the path leads to the ‘blind’ on Turtle Pond. I was able to see both beta Mon (mag. 4.6) and gamma Mon (mag. 4.0) naked eye even though I was looking towards the light pollution dome over Times Square.

Three people passed by who were interested in what I was doing in the cold and told them I was looking at an asteroid and asked it they wished to see Jupiter. Three times I placed Jupiter in the scope and the joy was apparent when they saw the planet. All four Galilean satellites were visible as were the equatorial bands. The latter weren't obvious to the observers until they were pointed out.

Relocating Hebe was easy after all that practice!

All the best.

Ben Cacace Manhattan, NYC

P.S. - other objects viewed: M41 open cluster in Canis Major and beta Monocerotis (triple star). Seeing wasn't the best but beta Mon split at 60x when the seeing settled down.

1 Ceres

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From Yahoo! Group ‘GuildOfManhattanSidewalkAstronomers’ — message #3049.

Text related to Ceres preceded with double asterisk (**):

Location: Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Fri-Sat, 8-9 April 2005 (~10:00p-4:00a)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon binoculars - mounted

Tonight was first light for the new binoculars, a pair of 10x70 Fujinon's. This purchase was made after looking for a second pair of binoculars for nova hunting. These binoculars should reach 0.8 of a magnitude deeper than the 7x50's making the star patterns already created for the limiting magnitude of the 7x50's 'easy as pie'.

Peter and Charlie were already setup peering through a partly cloudy sky with binoculars (22x60 Tak and 15x50 Canon respectively). We moved from the well lit bench area to a darker location at the north end of the Great Lawn. The sky conditions progressed from poor to good to ultimately excellent sky conditions after midnight.

First light for the 10x70's was the bright open cluster M44 in Cancer. It was beautiful in the Fujinon's. The ability to see a bit deeper than the 7x50's even under the initially bad conditions was encouraging.

Most of the night's targets were shared amongst the group including this first light target. Soon after I moved to the nova search area I've been working on. The current area is in Monoceros and was already getting too low to do anything productive. A quick check of 3 asterisms showed that the 10x70's revealed what the 7x50's couldn't under the same circumstances. If I had the 7x50's I wouldn't have been able to get past magnitude 8.0 - 6-7 tenths worse than normal. With the new binoculars I could easily see to magnitude 8.6. My hope is to work on as many areas in one evening down to magnitude 8.5. The going was very slow with the 7x50's. The 10x70's should help the project along considerably.

Here is my recollection of the objects viewed by one or all of the group:

Globular clusters [8]: M13 & M92 in Hercules, M3 in Canes Venatici, M5 in Sepens, M10 & M12 in Ophichus, M53 in Coma Berenices, M22 in Sagittarius. Tried but not seen: M56 in Lyra and M4 in Scorpio.

Open clusters [7]: M44 in Cancer, M7 & M6 in Scorpio, M11 in Scutum, M29 in Cygnus, NGC 2244 & 2264 in Monoceros. Tried but not seen: M67 in Cancer.

Planetary nebulae [2]: Cat's Eye in Draco - NGC 6543, M57 in Lyra. Tried but not seen: M27 in Vulpecula.

Doubles [many]: including nu & psi Draconis, Albireo, nu & beta Scorpii, epsilon & zeta Lyrae and others.

Solar system [4]: Saturn, Jupiter, Comet Machholz and the asteroid Ceres.

The Gallilean satellites showed up nicely in the 22x60's and movement was noticed with at least 3 of the 4 moons. Europa moved out of the gas giant's shadow as Io approached Jupiter. Callisto and Ganymede were moving away from the planet with Callisto closest to Jupiter. Only Io was nearer to us than Jupiter. The 22x60's were able to view the whole show. The 10x70's couldn't separate the 3 close-in satellites from the glare of Jupiter.

(**) The asteroid Ceres at mag. 7.5 was picked up easily in the 10x70's and was conveniently close to a dimmer star just above it. Peter and I both noted the orientation after spending some time practice guessing the magnitudes of the dimmer stars. A few hours later I picked up Ceres again and both of us saw the asteroid's movement relative to the star it was closest to earlier in the evening. Ceres is about 4.5 degrees east of beta Librae (Zuben Elschemali) and moving towards the star.

In the 10x70's I star hopped to the location of Comet Machholz. When the correct star pattern was seen I blocked out the local lights and using averted vision a dim image above a dim star appeared. The same effect occurred over a few tries and appeared in the same location relative to a star close to the comet. This was a *very* dim image and I asked Peter to take a look and without prompting he picked up and saw the same dim image in the same location as I had. The comet has dimmed considerably since we last saw it a few weeks ago. I was not expecting to see it.

All the best.

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

4 Vesta

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From Yahoo! Group ‘StarryNights’ — message #27265:

Asteroid: 4 Vesta
Observed: Friday, 30 Dec 2005 @ 8:45pm
Location: NE facing window in Manhattan, N.Y.C.
Visual magnitude: m6.47
Distance from earth: 1.563 AU (145.3 million miles)
Opposition date (mag.): 6 Jan 2006 (m6.21)
Equipment: Fujinon 10x70 binoculars
Discovery details: 4 Vesta an Inner Main Belt asteroid and is the 2nd most massive asteroid (12% by mass) discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807

After spotting 4 Vesta last night I searched the archives for observations of Vesta in StarryNights and found that the last posted observations were by Florian in 2004 where he followed the asteroid with 10x42's.

Vesta will now have an entry for 2005.

The asteroid is bright at mag. 6.47 in the constellation Gemini. This was my first confident variable 'star' estimate. Without looking at the magnitudes of the nearby stars I judged Vesta to be as bright, no dimmer or brighter, than the nearby star HIP 34608 1.4° to Vesta's SW or due right around the time of the observation.

This star is listed at 6.43! We'll see how lucky this estimate was.

I wonder if anyone is currently able to view Vesta naked eye?

There is a short writeup with charts from 'Planetarium for the Palm' at my blog.

http://tinyurl.com/d8kga or ...
http://novahunter.blogspot.com/2005/12/4-vesta-in-gemini-30-dec-2005.html

The asteroid is moving west along the ecliptic at ~16 arcminutes per day. The date of opposition from the Sun is 6 Jan 2006.

All the best.

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

Central Park Observing - 17 Dec. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Sat., 17 December 2005 (8:10p-9:00p)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted)
Conditions: winds W 6-7 mph, temp. 37-36°F

This was a short night in the park. Setup was completed at 8:20p after traveling for 40 minutes to the site. Clouds started rolling in from the west around 8:45p. Conditions were clear, cool with a predominantly west wind.

• Topics: SALC 53N; categories 1 & 2

Tonight I worked within SALC 53 North in Auriga. This section of the sky is +40° to +35° in declination and 5h40m to 5h00m in R.A. I've already created asterisms for this area using 7x50 Fujinon's. Now that the binocular limiting magnitude (BLM) has increased there is a need to create a new set of asterisms.

My task for the few minutes I had of clear sky was to bin the stars into the categories I mentioned in a previous post.

After looking at 52 stars in 3 asterisms the following was found:

• Category 1: Obvious stars. These are bright enough to take no effort to see. Many would be visible while looking at them through a filter. There were 13 stars that fell into this category. The range for tonight with the 16.5 day old Moon nearby was mag. 5.1 – 6.9.

• Category 2: Stars dimmer than cat. 1 taking little effort to see. These stars are steadily seen and need no effort pull out from the background glow. 39 stars fell into this category. The range for tonight was mag. 8.0 – 9.0.

There was a natural gap between the dimmest category 1 (mag. 6.9) and the brightest category 2 (mag. 8.0). This gap will narrow as the number of stars increase. It will be interesting to see where the line in the sand is drawn.

NOVA HUNTING:

Number of stars seen:
• 52 during a 20 minute session.

Asterism in Auriga: Cheshire Cat

I decided to write up the details for an asterism I discovered in Auriga back on November 7th 2002.

Discovery details appear at the end of this post.

‘Click for more ...’ below to view two charts. The first is a wide field chart and the second is a close up of the ‘Cheshire Cat’ asterism.

Next time you're out give this asterism a shot. When Auriga is rising the image of the face is upright. Most binoculars will show this object at its best.

Click on the images to see larger views including details:

Location of ‘Cheshire Cat’ — 2° circle.
Close up of ‘Cheshire Cat’ — 2° circle.

This is my first astronomical discovery albeit a minor one but one I'm happy to have made. It is an asterism in the constellation Auriga which resembles a smiling face. I named it ‘Cheshire Cat’ on November 7th, 2002.

Here is the original text from a message #13510 on the Yahoo! Groups list ‘StarryNights’:

Date: Fri Nov 8, 2002 11:57 am
Subject: Asterism in Auriga [7Nov2002]

Last night while looking through Auriga for M36 and M38 with 8.5x42 binoculars I came across a binocular asterism located SSW of M38. It is centered on RA 5h 27.5m / Dec +35 degrees. I viewed it at ~10p EST. The object is made up of 8 stars ranging in magnitude from 5.08 (phi Aur) to 6.86 (TYC 2411-515-1). The entire asterism can fit inside a 2° circle. This asterism looks like a face -- 2 eyes (mags 6.15 & 6.52) and 6 stars for the mouth. I am calling it "Cheshire Cat" ... unless, of course, there is another Cheshire Cat up there. If so then I would call it Frog Face keeping with the alliterative theme. The face is oriented "properly" at this time of night/year.

If this asterism has been named already please let me know if the details exist somewhere.

Also, on the left edge of the "smile" (nearer to M38) is the eclipsing binary star LY Aurigae which varies from 6.7 - 7.4 with a period of 4.002 days.

Let me know what you think.

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

P.S. - with the binoculars M36 was an easy target. M38 was not an obvious open cluster.

Enjoy!

Binoculars: Stars Near the Moon

The sky is clear tonight and the nearly full Moon is rising above the buildings on Manhattan's East Side. I thought to check out how dim a star I could see near the Moon with two different pairs of binoculars. The key was not to know which stars are in the vicinity of the Moon. Binoculars used were:

• 8.5x42 Swarovski EL
• 10x70 Fujinon FMT-SX

The Swarovski's are my main birding binoculars and they fill this task extremely well. Unfortunately they are less capable when viewing the Moon. The reflections within the binoculars creates many bright ghosts which reduces the overall contrast. The sky is not black in the FOV when looking at the Moon.

The Fujinon 10x70 FMT-SX are my primary binoculars for nova hunting. When viewing a bright object like the Moon I'm very impressed with the way these binoculars deal with internal reflections. They are almost non-existent. The area surrounding tonight's nearly full Moon was black to within a half degree of the Moon's limb. There is a bit of a coronal effect but it is so uniform and thin that it doesn't hamper the view all that much. Viewing the Moon with these binoculars is an absolute pleasure.

At approximately 7:15p EST I studied the area surrounding the Moon with the Swarovski 8.5x42's. The two most obvious stars were Mebsuta (ε Gemini, mag. 3.1) to its right (west) and 28 Gemini (mag. 5.4) above and slightly to the left of the Moon. After looking around and not knowing what was around I came across three more stars forming a downward pointing triangle above and to the right of the Moon. The stars in this groups were mag. 5.3, 5.8 and 6.0.

The distance of the 6.0 star (54 Aurigae) was 2.5° from the center of the Moon. No other stars were noticed within 3 degrees of the Moon. I then took a look at ‘Planetarium for the Palm’ (PftP) and noticed a 6.5 mag star 2.1° from the Moon's center. When I studied the area where this star should be I was able to see it with the 8.5x42's.

With the Fujinon 10x70's all the stars mentioned above were easily seen and no others were noticed after scanning for a few minutes. Thinking no other stars would be visible in the 10x70's I checked PftP and noticed a 6.7 mag. star 1.1° from the Moon's center. After looking closely at the area where the star should be with the Fujinon's I spotted the star. It was steadily seen as long as I looked directly at it. This was clearly more difficult than the others. It was seen each time I made the attempt to view it.

Later on I noticed a 6.7 mag. had recently reappeared on the Moon's limb. I made an attempt at 8:20p EST while the star is a mere 12 arc minutes from the western limb of the Moon. I wasn't able to pull it out with the Fujinon 10x70's.

It's good know the ‘limits’ of your optics so you can tell which events are possible and what equipment is needed for a particular task. I'm always testing ... it's fun!

Object List: 2,000 Asteroids (PftP)

Observation after creating object list: Juno at mag. 7.6 was spotted on 18-Dec in binoculars to double check my conversions of the elements for ‘Planetarium for the Palm’ (PftP). The charting of Juno was off by 11'44". The orbital elements for Juno supplied by A. Hofer (developer of Planetarium for the Palm) matched the location of Juno closely as seen in a mounted pair of Fujinon 10x70's. Unfortunately the previous elements I created were off by a ½ day. An updated file containing 2,000 asteroids with corrected & tested elements is now available below.

Since the PDA program ‘Planetarium for the Palm’ (PftP) didn't have the bright asteroid Vesta in its database I decided to add it. On my way to resolving this issue I found some recently updated orbital elements at ‘Computer Aided Astronomy’ (CA2). The Julian Date for the elements are 2453700 — November 26th, 2005.

Needless to say I translated the first 2,000 asteroids for PftP and would like to share the file. I've tested the results for 60 of the asteroids by comparing them with the desktop planetarium program ‘SkyMap Pro’ and results are spot on.

The zip file below holds a file containing all 2,000 asteroids. I will be using the file to select the brighter asteroids that are not currently on the PDA program.

Click on filename to download or alternate click (i.e. right click for righties) and ‘Save Link As...’

FILENAME	DESCRIPTION
PftP_Asteroids {1-2000}.zip	2,000 Asteroids (20-Dec-2005)

Viewing Venus: A Daylight Timing

Today I took a short break from the office and headed off to Bryant Park again to observe Venus in daylight in order to determine if I could see Venus' phase › naked eye › at this point in its cycle.

Knowing this would be difficult I also planned to see how long it would take to spot Venus naked eye. The time of the observation was around 2:30pm with the Sun 16° above the horizon.

I knew approximately where to look since the circumstances matched the previous sighting closely, but not exactly. When I arrived at the location I took out the Palm and started the stopwatch.

After viewing for nearly 6 seconds I detected Venus. After viewing it for a bit I went to check out a nearby bird - it was a White-throated Sparrow. When I went back to view the planet again it was picked up almost instantly. I didn't think it would be that quick. I'm glad I decided to time myself.

Last night, around sunset, I spotted Mars near the Moon and that sighting was more difficult than viewing Venus today in full sunlight.

Needless to say with Venus at close to 44 arc seconds I wasn't able to see it as anything other than as a bright spot on a blue background. I'll keep trying as long as the weather permits.

Great Meteor Display of 1913

While searching for information on C.A. Chant I found a fascinating publication on a meteoric display unlike any seen before or since. This occurred on February 9th 1913. C.A. Chant was instrumental in collecting, analyzing and publishing information about the event which was seen from Saskatchewan to Bermuda.

C.A. Chant's name came to my attention while I was writing up the text for ‘Venus' Phase Naked Eye?’

A facsimile of the book, including eyewitness reports, published by C.A. Chant is viewable online. Here's the site where the facsimile can be found:

‘Facsimile Books & other digitally enhanced Works from:
THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA LIBRARIES’
• http://fax.libs.uga.edu/dbfp.html

Here is a short description of the event from W.H. Pickering:

THE METEORIC PROCESSION OF FEBRUARY 9, 1913

By WILLIAM H. PICKERING

PART I

This remarkable phenomenon was in no sense a meteoric shower. It was a different kind of event altogether, and while undoubtedly much less spectacular than a great shower, such as that of Nov. 1833 was in some respects more interesting and instructive.

It consisted of a procession of fire balls and meteors all moving very slowly, in practically the same path across the sky, from horizon to horizon. It was first seen near Mortlach, 65 miles west of Regina, Saskatchewan, lat. 50°.5 N., long. 106° W. It traversed successively Manitoba, Minnesota. Michigan, Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey a few miles to the south of New York City. It then went out to sea, and appeared next in Bermuda, was seen from the steamship Bellusia, lat. 17° 35'N., long. 51° 11'W., and last from the steamer Newlands, lat. 3° 20' S., long. 32° 30' W.

The distance between the first and last stations is 5,659 miles. Computation indicates that the meteors traversed several thousand miles more, While still within the limits of the earth's atmosphere, thus forming prior to their final destruction a series of minute temporary terrestrial satellites.

Click iconfor a PDF version of the document without bookmarks.

The following bookmarked texts (viewable with DjVu) are from the same publication. Listed below are links to each section within the facsimile. The text spans from pages 1/61 - 61/61.

‘An Extraordinary Meteoric Display’
by C.A. Chant, May-June 1913 (1 - 40/61)

‘Notes on the Gt. Meteoric Stream of 1913, Feb. 9th’
by W. F. Denning, Sep. 1913 (41 - 45/61)

‘The Great Meteor of 9th February, 1913’
by W.H.S. Monck, Mar. 1914 (46 - 48/61)

‘The Meteoric Procession of Feb. 9, 1913’
by William H. Pickering., Part I, 27 Sep. 1922 (51 - 53/61)

‘The Radiant & Orbit of the Meteors of Feb. 9, 1913’
by C. C. Wylie, 27 Apr. 1939 (55 - 61/61)

Venus' Phase Naked Eye?

Yesterday (9-Dec) I went to Bryant Park (near the New York Public Library) after a ‘half-day Friday’ at the office, to spot Venus naked eye after the storm. Blue skies predominated.

I've kept notes on the location of various azimuths (locations along the horizon in degrees) from my personal Uraniborg around the Bryant Park lawn so I knew approximately where to look for the planet. After searching for about a minute I spotted Venus fairly easily. Easier than usual for some reason. It was steadily seen and easily recovered when I looked back after taking notes.

The planet was spotted as it was southing (crossing the meridian) so it was considerably higher than the Sun.

Screen Shots from Planetarium for the Palm

I remember reading about seeing Venus' crescent naked eye only after viewing the planet. All I've ever remembered was that Venus appeared starlike but I never thought to check out if the crescent were visible.

Below are a few articles from ‘The NASA Astrophysics Data System’ on seeing the phase of Venus naked eye. These appear to be some of the first published reports of sighting the crescent naked eye.

One of the articles mentions that when Venus is 40 arc seconds it is equivalent to seeing a 1" object approximately 430 feet away. If you've seen this could you let us know when this happened and the circumstances surrounding the sighting?

‘Is the Crescent Form of Venus Visible to the Naked Eye?’ by Campbell, W. W. (Apr./1916)
Publ. of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 28, No. 163, p.86

‘Notes & Queries: Phase of Venus seen w/the Naked Eye’ by Chant, C. A. (Jan./1929)
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 23, p.48

‘Notes & Queries: Crescent Venus seen w/the Naked Eye’ by Chant, C. A. (Mar./1929)
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 23, p.144

‘Notes & Queries: Venus as a Crescent w/the Naked Eye’ by Chant, C. A. (Jan./1935)
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 29, p.30
>>> Scroll to page 31:

Other references to phase sightings of Venus naked eye:

‘Inferential Evidence for the Pre-telescopic Sighting of the Crescent Venus’ by David Lance Goines
(Berkeley, California, 1992; version of Oct. 18, 1995)
• http://www.goines.net/Writing/venus.html

‘Naked-eye detection of the phase of Venus’
By Jay Reynolds Freeman (28 May 1996)
• http://observers.org/reports/96.05.28.html

Web Searches:

• Wikipedia: Phases of Venus
• Usenet '*astro*' [405]: venus crescent naked-eye
• Google [260]: venus-crescent or crescent-venus naked-eye
• NASA ADS Search [4]: venus and crescent and 'naked eye'

Image from ‘New York Public Library: N.Y. Architecture Images - Midtown’

Canon of Solar System Transits

In the year 69163, approximately 3,360 generations from now, there should be a simultaneous transit of Venus and Mercury across the Sun as seen from Earth. Not sure where on Earth but I don't think this *really* matters.

Due to the 'evolution of planetary orbits' this event cannot occur with the current planetary configuration.

Take a look at ‘Quarter Million Year Canon of Solar System Transits’ by John Walker for a nice write up. The entire quarter million year canon of transits can be downloaded in Comma Separated Value (CSV) format from the download center at the end of the document.

>> Click image for animation <<

Paul Couteau's Double Star List

Stars Processed	Total Time	% Cleansed
315 of 744	1d 05h 00m	42.3%

I'm currently updating Paul Couteau's double star list from his 1978 book ‘Observing Double Stars‘ in order to create a catalog of doubles for use with planetarium programs. The first catalog is going to be for ‘Planetarium for the Palm’ (PftP).

Couteau's catalog contains 744 doubles in order of right ascension. Updating the list involves updating his entries with current information from the Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS).

The process involves confirming the data on Couteau's list and linking this data to an Excel version of the WDS. I make use of SIMBAD and various desktop planetaria (Cartes du Ciel & SkyMap Pro) to help with the confirmation process.

After analyzing 130 stars I've found 5 stars needing an ‘update’ to Couteau's designation. Each star takes approximately 5 minutes to update. Total time for updating the list will take at least 70 hours.

To Couteau's original I will be adding the Aitken Double Star (ADS) number, coordinates for epoch 2000.0 with the addition of a difficulty index for star separations between 1 and 10 arc seconds derived from pLadic for the Palm. The magnitudes, position angles and separations will also be updated.

I'm looking for a way to group the doubles into subsets i.e. by separation or by difficulty index in order to keep the lists short. Some subsets I'm thinking of are:

• doubles visible in a 3" refractor
• doubles visible with mounted binoculars
• doubles visible with a 10" reflector

Viewing a sample of these stars with various optics will help clarify which stars belong with which lists.

Here are some screen shots for PftP with data pulled from the updated Couteau Double Star list. The star shown is 59 Andromedae — separation 16.5" / mag. 6.1 & 6.7. This double should be viewable with at least 10x binoculars.

The 1st screen shot shows the ‘Object Information‘ for 59 And. The 2nd screen shot displays a wide-field star chart highlighting the target star.

Screen Shots from Planetarium for the Palm

From ‘Observing Double Stars’ by P. Couteau:

Retain for updated database.
Verify with Washington Double Star (WDS) Catalog.
Override with WDS details.
Additions to Couteau's list.

• Running numbers from 1 to 744
• Name of double star pair
• Bayer / Flamsteed name
• Coordinates for equinox 1950
• Visual magnitudes of the components
• Position angles to the nearest degree
• Separations
• The corresponding year
• Difficulty Index
• Aitken Double Star (ADS) number
• Constellation
• Distance in light years

Central Park Observing - 30 Nov. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Wed., 30 November 2005 (5:30p-8:00p)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted)
Conditions: winds var.-WNW 7-9 mph, temp. 54-49°F

Another evening spent nova hunting. The search area is still SALC 34N in Perseus which includes α, ι, κ and δ Persei. Conditions were clear, cool with the wind predominantly from the west. Tonight was the first night working with light blocking equipment. When the wind isn't gusting ‘The Plamp’ and the 12" reflector hold up nicely. They are keepers.

Transparency was consistent throughout the session. The binocular limiting magnitude (BLM) was close to 9.4. Start time was 6:10p. The area was covered in 1 hour and 40 minutes ending around 7:50p. A number of people stopped by to chat and I broke up the nova hunt a few times to show people objects in the binoculars.

James (who knew me from birding) stopped by and talked about an American Kestrel project he was working on so I passed on my email address to him in case he needed any assistance. Part of the project is searching for nests in the city. There are quite a few nests but few locations are known since these falcons (the smallest in North America) are pretty secretive when they want to be.

Mike stopped and asked to look at something, he's been around the site a few times before. I gladly offered to show him the Pleiades. This object in the 10x70's never fails to please. We talked a bit and I recommended a few things for him to look up on the net since he made the request. I thought for a bit and told him to look up ‘ice volcanos’ and ‘Cassini’ since he showed an interest in the planets. I also recommended Neil DeGrasse Tyson's excellent biographer ‘The Sky Is Not The Limit’. Thanks again Peter for introducing me to this book!

Later on Oakley and Harry stopped by. I've never seen them around TotL. Oakley is short and beautiful and has a remarkable pair of eyes. I couldn't actually see what they looked like in the dark but she was able to pick out 7 stars in the Pleiades including Pleione, 5 arc minutes from Atlas. When she saw the cluster in the binoculars she was amazed. She stayed at the eyepiece for quite a long time. A true connoisseur. Can Bogart with the best of them. Coming away from the eyepieces she saw in the stars the figure of a horse and described it fully. I'll need to take a look next time to see if I can see what she saw. Harry walked away with an image of a Unicorn. Power of suggestion?

• Nova Hunting:

Stars Seen:

No stars needed to be added. The chart's limiting magnitude is 9.5 which goes just beyond the limiting magnitude of the Fujinon 10x70's. BLM for the evening was around 9.4.

Number of stars seen: 408 stars in 5°s of declination by 50 minutes of right ascension.

Lunar Occultations: 4-December-2005

Three of the stars involved are very close doubles. Unfortunately only the last of the three will be easy enough to view in a small scope. This star is bright enough and will disappear on the dark edge of the Moon. The other two tight double events occur on the sunlit side.

The Moon's altitude at the start of the series is 19°. It will descend to 13° when the close double 60 Sagittarii (separation = 0.05" (5 hundreths of an arcsecond)), is occulted on the dark limb.

I've never attempted to view tight doubles during a lunar occultation. Given clear skies this should be an interesting evening.

DEFINITION OF TERMS: Vertex Angle - the angle of the event around the limb of the moon measured anticlockwise from the vertex of the lunar limb - i.e. the point on the limb highest from the horizon. To help with above term I've converted it to an "o'clock" time (i.e 01:15 "o'clock") which will shows where the star will be seen on the limb of the Moon as if the Moon were a clock's dial as viewed naked eye or through a pair of binoculars. Cusp Angle - the angle of the event around the limb of the moon, measured from the nearest cusp. Negative (-) values indicate a bright limb event. The cusps are usually N (north) or S (south), but near full moon can be E (East) or W (west). (d/r D/R) If the letter in parentheses next to "Disappearance" and "Reappearance" are lowercase this means the star may not be visible in a small telescope. These events are useful to test the algorithm built into WinOccult 3.1.0 to see how it applies to various telescopes/binoculars.

Event: Total Lunar Occultations
Location: Central Park, New York City
Day/date: Sun., 04 December 2005

[Click on (d/r) or (D/R) for location on limb.]

Star: ZC 2910 (omega Sgr) / Mag.: 4.7
Duration (h:mm:ss): 0:09:34
Sun's altitude at disappearance: -3°

• ome Sgr is a double: mv 5.6 & 5.6, sep. 0.001" (PA 51.3)

¶ Disappearance (d): EVENT #1
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 04:42:17 PM
Vertex angle: 325° / 01:15 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 19°SSW/14%
Cusp angle: -9°N

¶ Reappearance (r): EVENT #2
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 04:51:51 PM
Vertex angle: 307° / 01:45 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 18°SSW/14%
Cusp angle: -25°N

---

Star: SAO 188749 / Mag.: 8.1
Duration: [disappearance only]
Sun's altitude at disappearance: -8°

¶ Disappearance (d): EVENT #3
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 05:09:19 PM
Vertex angle: 347° / 12:30 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 17°SSW/14%
Cusp angle: +18°N

EVENT #8: Check for reappearance starting at 5:48 PM around 3 "o'clock" on the dial.

---

Star: SAO 188724 / Mag.: 7.7
Duration: [reappearance only]
Sun's altitude at reappearance: -8°

¶ Reappearance (r): EVENT #4
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 05:10:43 PM
Vertex angle: 229° / 04:15 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 16°SSW/14%
Cusp angle: -80°S

Note: 188724 is double: mv 8.4 & 8.4, sep. 0.100" (PA45.0)

---

Star: SAO 188764 / Mag.: 8.9
Duration: [disappearance only]
Sun's altitude at disappearance: -8°

¶ Disappearance (d): EVENT #5
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 05:11:09 PM
Vertex angle: 31° / 11:00 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 16°SSW/14%
Cusp angle: +62°N

---

Star: SAO 188779 / Mag.: 8.7
Duration: [disappearance only]
Sun's altitude at disappearance: < -12°

¶ Disappearance (d): EVENT #6
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 05:36:41 PM
Vertex angle: 38° / 10:45 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 14°SW/14%
Cusp angle: +73°N

---

Star: ZC 2914 (60 Sgr) / Mag.: 4.8
Duration (h:mm:ss): 1:01:47
Sun's altitude at disappearance: < -12°

ZC 2914 is double: mv 5.8 & 5.8, sep. 0.050" (0.0PA)

¶ Disappearance (D): EVENT #7
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 05:42:40 PM
Vertex angle: 16° / 11:30 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 13°SW/14%
Cusp angle: +53°N

¶ Reappearance (r): EVENT #10
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 06:44:27 PM
Vertex angle: 227° / 04:30 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 5°SW/14%
Cusp angle: -88°N

---

Star: SAO 188817 / Mag.: 8.0
Duration: [disappearance only]
Sun's altitude at disappearance: < -12°

¶ Disappearance (d): EVENT #9
Local time: 04 Dec 2005 06:31:26 PM
Vertex angle: 53° / 10:15 "o'clock"
Moon's alt/ill.: 7°SW/14%
Cusp angle: +84°S

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Recent Purchase: The Plamp

‘Plamp’ is short for ‘Plant Clamp’.

---

For the longest time I've been looking for a solution to block stray light at my current observing location in Central Park. The lampposts at TotL are further apart than most of the lampposts surrounding the Great Lawn but they still create enough glare to make observing difficult.

Central Park Lamppost

An articulated arm that could hold a light shield seemed like the right solution but I couldn't easily find one on-line. I finally went down to B&H Photo to take a look around. Nobody in the store could point me to the right product so I decided to hit the lighting section. Nothing on display seemed right. Too heavy!

After roaming around the department for a few minutes I saw two products. Both had articulated arms that could clip-on to a tripod and both had clamps on the end. The smaller of the two seemed to fit the bill. The ‘neck’ is 19" long with 33 articulations. I also purchased a 12" round black/silver light shield.

This should do the trick!

Central Park Observing - 20 Nov. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Sun., 20 November 2005 (6:05p-8:15p)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted), Tele Vue-76
Conditions: winds var.-SW from 5-9 m.p.h., temp. 53°F

Another evening dedicated to the hunt. The search area is SALC 34N in Perseus which includes α, ι, κ and δ Persei.

Conditions were clear, cool with a south-west wind blowing on my back. Tonight was the first night working with a Cartes du Ciel (CdC) chart printed with asterism lines.

Transparency improved as the session progressed. The binocular limiting magnitude (BLM) was 9.2 early on increasing to 9.3+ towards the middle of the session. Start time was 6:05p. The full area was covered in 1.5 hours ending around 7:35p.

This is quickest I've been able to cover all of SALC 34N. I don't think it can get much quicker if I'm going to thoroughly check out the starless regions for potential novae. Having a chart with a limiting magnitude of 9.5 helps eliminate the time spent triangulating and plotting stars that aren't on the chart.

Ken was setup at the top of the lawn showing Venus to a small crowd through a spotting scope. Tom C. showed up a bit later. Both left early on.

NOVA HUNTING:

Variable Stars:

V410 Persei was seen for the first time tonight. It was the dimmest star in the area surrounding the ‘Three Boxes’ asterism making it ~9.2. V410 Per is a semiregular variable with a late-type spectrum (M, C, S or Me, Ce, Se). The quoted range is between 8.8 and 9.4. The period is listed as 110 days. This star should be visible in the 10x70's, even at its dimmest, on most evenings.

Here is a description of an SRB variable star from the General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS):

Semiregular late-type (M, C, S or Me, Ce, Se) giants with poorly defined periodicity (mean cycles in the range of 20 to 2300 days) or with alternating intervals of periodic and slow irregular changes, and even with light constancy intervals (RR CrB, AF Cyg). Every star of this type may usually be assigned a certain mean period (cycle), which is the value given in the Catalogue. In a number of cases, the simultaneous presence of two or more periods of light variation is observed.

The chart's limiting magnitude is 9.5 which goes just beyond the limiting magnitude of the Fujinon 10x70's in Central Park. BLM for the evening was 9.2 - 9.4.

Number of stars seen: 419. Area covered: 5 degrees of declination by 50 minutes of right ascension.

Irons in the Fire

• Double star list for ‘Planetarium for the Palm’
• Updating list of confirmed novae for charting purposes
• Searching for novae

Unflagging effort is probably the most important quality needed in finding a nova. Alfredo Pereira, discoverer of Nova Aquilae 1999 No. 2, introduced me to the word ‘assiduity’ from the article linked to. Assiduity levels are hard to keep up.

Research on topics related to novae are keeping me from going out into the field as often as I'd like. Cloudy nights are not helping.

• A project I'm involved with, not related to novae, is reducing the Paul Couteau table of double stars for the software program ‘Planetarium for the Palm’.

This involves researching the stars on the Internet including updating the orbits based on an Excel program I found on the web. I'll probably split the list of 744 stars into at least 3 groups based on the separation of the primary/secondary stars.

• The nova related project involves creating a list of all known novae bringing the list as up to date as possible.

I became most interested in nova hunting when I produced the following chart based on a preliminary list of 361 novae. The drop-off of ‘finds’ for stars reaching maximum visual magnitude that are greater than 7th mag. was intriguing to say the least. Here is a rough idea of what I saw:

Mag  No. Graph
>1st  3  #
1st   2  #
2nd   5  ##
3rd   5  ##
4th  12  ######
5th  14  #######
6th  24  ############
7th  51  #########################
8th  39  ###################
9th  45  ######################
10th 34  #################
11th 32  ################
12th 14  #######
13th  9  ####
14th  8  ####
15th  5  ##
16th  6  ###
17th  3  #
18th  2  #
99th  3  #

You would think that the number of ‘finds’ would increase as magnitudes increase. I wouldn't have guessed that there was a drop off after 7th magnitude.

This is main thing that prompted me to search for novae visually at a limiting magnitude deeper than 7th magnitude.

AMS List of Fireballs (2005)

The following site was passed onto me by Tom C. showing all fireball sightings reported to the American Meteor Society (AMS) for 2005.

An entry for November 11th 2005 at 10:28pm shows a fireball witnessed at the same time in the same place in the sky from both Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY.

• Fireball Sightings Table: 2005

Scroll down to entries 371a & 371b to see the both entries for this Taurid Fireball on the ‘Fireball Sightings Table’.

See previous post for details on the New York City sighting.

Asterism List for SALC 34N in Perseus

Below is a list of asterism names for SALC 34N. I've finished laying out the figures in the planetarium program Cartes du Ciel (CdC). An example, and a short write-up, for a few of the asterisms appears at the end of this post:

» See examples below table «

ASTERISM NAMES
Bromeliad	Orange Slice
Single Box	Mace
ι Per "Kite"	Cubist Lady
Three Boxes	Three Kings
Triangle Man	River Styx
Sm. Witch's Hat	Keystone
Transformer	Gooseneck Lamp
Water Jar	Nautilus
Greek Capital - Σ	Clog
κ Per "Ship"	Home Plate & Triangle
Five Doubles	Pegasus
Lg Witch's Hat	Sextant
Little Dipper	Bowtie
Segmented Dog

[ IMAGE] SALC 34N Asterism - ‘Bowtie’

[Click on the variable names for details from a previous post]

---

This is an image of the ‘Bowtie’ asterism which exists along the southern edge of SALC 34N. One of the variables I'm following, called Y Persei, is just right/south of the ‘knot’.

Also near the asterism is GK Persei AKA Nova Persei 1901 which became the brightest ‘new star’ since the two supernovae from nearly 300 years before Nova Persei 1901 appeared. The supernovae are refered to as Tycho's Star (1572) and Kepler's Star (1604).

The size of the asterism is ~1.5° x 0.75°. The limiting magnitude is 9.5.

---

[Image] SALC 34N Asterism - ‘Bromeliad’

The above link shows an asterism in SALC 34N I call ‘Bromeliad’. This is the first one created for this region and remains unchanged from the day it was created.

This flowering plant often collects water used to capture protein in the form of insects and other organic material. The flowers will make use of the nutrients in this debris.

The size of the asterism is ~2° x 1.5°. This one includes the brightest star in Perseus - Mirfak (α Persei) - and a portion of the Perseus OB3 Association. West is up and north is to the left. The limiting magnitude is 9.5.

The water level and the doomed fly are both represented in this figure.

Central Park Observing - 10 Nov. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Thu., 10 November 2005 (7:40p-9:45p)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted)
Observers: Peter T., Kin L.
Conditions: winds from 8-15 m.p.h., temp. 45°-43°F

Tonight was dedicated to nova hunting in Perseus. The search area is still the north portion of SALC 34. I'm very close to finalizing the asterisms. Tonight was the first night working with a pencil & ruler chart.

I'm ready to create asterisms for the planetarium program Cartes du Ciel (CdC). This is one of the reasons I've taken off from observing under a clear sky. I'm convinced Leslie Peltier would never have done such a thing.

Observing was broken up somewhat by heavy clouds moving through. Luckily they moved out fairly quickly creating down time of approximately 15 minutes. It was fun watching the clouds move from the field revealing rich star fields in the binoculars.

The observing chair I use is made of wood and fairly lightweight. Lightweight is important since I travel on foot or by bus to observe. The chair I use is The Beer Chair.

I started nova hunting with a pair of Fujinon 7x50's but felt I should go deeper as long as I could maintain a decent field of view. The Fujinon 10x70's fit the bill. The gain over the smaller binoculars is almost a full magnitude. The FOV is 5°18' (5.3°) compared to the 7.5° FOV for the 7x50's. Any deeper would show too many stars to track & map successfully.

The session started at 7:40p and ended at 9:45p. The full search area was covered. While I was checking out the ‘new stars’ on my PDA program ‘Planetarium for the Palm’ for any ‘suspect’ stars I spotted one star I wanted to check again. When I went back to observe the skies were completely obscured. The cloud cover was thick enough so only the Moon, Mars and Capella could be seen.

During this time we were able to spot a 22° halo surrounding the Moon. Only half the full circle was detected. It was subtle, not obvious like the same feature surrounding the Sun.

I should be out there now to checking up on that star!

NOVA HUNTING:

SALC Date & Tot. Time  BLM    Optics
34N  2005/11/10 2h05m  9.6 Fujinon 10x70

Hand Plotted - Stars dimmer than mag. 9.1:

15 stars were plotted by hand on the original chart. These stars were dimmer than the limiting magnitude of 9.1 on CdC. Only 2 of these stars were not seen: a mag. 9.03 star (CdC shows this object dimmer than 9.1) off of the ‘Three Boxes’ asterism (TYC 3319- 366-1) and the variable star V410 Persei also within the ‘Three Boxes’.

Additional Stars Not on Chart:

53 additional stars were spotted and plotted. All but one were cleared as ‘non-novae’. The range of the stars not plotted was 9.03 - 9.64. A mag. 9.86 star (TYC 3312-1838-1) was seen in the ‘Transformer’ asterism which does not appear to be a double needing to have its magnitude corrected. This is much deeper than I should be able to see. I'll need to check into this star a bit more.

Number of stars seen: 367 plotted, 13 added and 53 additional. Total of 433 stars. Area size: 5°s of declination by 50 minutes of right ascension. I will need to lower the limiting magnitude of the chart to include most of the stars seen in the past few sessions.

NYC Taurid Fireball - 11 Nov. 2005

Brighter than Venus!

As I was waiting for a late night coffee to brew I went over to a north facing window to look at the stars. I was testing my variable star skills to see which stars are brighter than others.

The skies in N.Y.C. are currently cold & crystal clear.

Seconds after arriving at the open window I saw a brilliant white streak that wasn't your typical meteor. It grew brighter than Venus and appeared to sparkle towards the end of its flight. The whole event lasted less than a second.

It originated from the general direcion of Capella and ended its orbit at a point about halfway up from the northern Pointer in the Big Dipper (α Ursa Majoris - Dubhe) and Polaris. It left a naked eye smoke trail.

Plotting it on SkyMap Pro shows that the path in the sky was at least 25° and the direction it was travelling from leaves no doubt about which comet this originated from - Comet Encke.

My northeast facing window (aka Manhattan north) perfectly framed the end of the line for one of a seemingly endless source of meteors.

I don't think it was a Bolide because the only sound heard was the quickening of my heartbeat.

[Image] Path of Taurid Fireball - 11 Nov. @ ~10:28 PM

Wikipedia: Bolide, Taurids

Central Park Observing - 7 Nov. 2005

Location: Central Park's Great Lawn (north end) [TotL]
Date/time: Mon-Tue, 7-8 Nov. 2005 (~7:00p-12:00a)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted)
Observers: Charlie R., Peter T., Kin L.
Conditions: winds variable 5-7 m.p.h., temp. 58°-53°F

The skies were clear when I left the house. When I arrived at the park some high cirrus started to appear. Soon after arriving Charlie, Peter & Kin showed up under skies blanketed with light cloud cover. Things were to change soon.

The nova hunt started around 7:30pm while looking through clouds. During this first session it was possible to see down to magnitude 8.5 in the 10x70's instead of the typical binocular limiting magnitude (BLM) of 9.2 to 9.3.

We waited around and talked as the clouds kept coming. Then suddenly the sky was crystal clear! I resumed the hunt in SALC 34N around 9:30p in Perseus and was able to see stars down to 9.40 which is the best I've been able to do since purchasing the Fujinon's. Naked eye limiting magnitude (NELM) for me was slightly better than 5.0.

While searching during the 1st session I made some connections between the asterisms. Since I was able to see only the brightest stars this allowed me to get a feel for larger arrangements which spanned a number of asterisms clearly showing the relationships between them. This was a big help and I'll try to incorporate this technique even when the skies are not lightly covered with clouds.

At the start of the session, around 7:30p, the center of SALC 34N was ~40° above the horizon. This is in my comfort zone of a 30° - 50° altitude when viewing with tripod mounted bincoculars on a video head. At the beginning of the 2nd session, around 9:30p, the center of the SALC rose to ~60°. At the end of the hunt the center was at ~70°. Viewing objects above 50°+ altitude with the current setup puts a strain on the neck but is obviously doable. I wouldn't want to this too often.

Observed with the Teleport 10":

• Deep Sky:

Messier 1 (Supernova Remant: 6x4', distance ~6,500 l.y.) Very impressive to see this object from the heart of N.Y.C. Peter star hopped to the Crab Nebula after an off the cuff comment asking if he's seen M1 from the city. I was surprised he picked it up but then again his observing skills are top notch and improving all the time. Messier 1 is barely discernable from the background and is most noticeable when moving the scope slightly.

Seeing a supernova remant for the first time from the light pollution capital of the world was a great treat. Thanks for the views Peter!!

Observed with the Fujinon 10x70's:

• Globular Clusters:

Messier 15 in Pegasus was picked up easily and shared with Peter T. The bright core was evident at 10x. It's good to see how much he appreciates viewing objects with any type of optical aid including unassisted optical observations i.e. ‘naked eye’.

• Double Stars:

ψ Draconis, STF 2241 AB (mag. 4.9 & 6.1 / sep. 30.0") splits easily and cleanly with the 10x70's.

40 & 41 Draconis, STF2308 AB (5.7 & 6.0 / sep. 18.6") The pair was pointed out to us by Charlie which he split with the 15x50's. In the Fujinon 10x70's this is a wonderful double. Both components are nearly equal in magnitude with black space separating the stars.

• Nova Hunting:

Category 2 - Stars needing effort to see:

This category wasn't quantified.

I wanted to get through the area as quickly as possible since it was going to rise out of range of the tripod mounted binoculars. My feeling during the transparency rich portion of the night was that stars down to 9.40 were visible with a bit of effort which is considerably deeper than previous nights out with the Fujinon 10x70's.

The dimmest stars: TYC 2874-1527-1 (mag. 9.39), TYC 2874-2178-1 (mag. 9.36) [both in the ‘Bowtie’]; TYC 3311-2297-1 (9.34), TYC 3311-1669-1 (9.33) [both in the ‘Small Witch's Hat’] are not listed as doubles in the catalogs. These are probably correct visual magnitudes.

Category 1 - Stars easily seen:

This was also not quantified.

Variable Stars:

Only 4 variables are looked for in this region on a regular basis and I only noted whether they were seen or not. Here are details on variable stars in SALC 34N from a previous post:

• Y Per (mv 8.4 - 10.3, var. type Mira, per. 248.6 days) was visible in the ‘Bowtie’ asterism.

• V410 Per (mv 8.8 - 9.4, var. type SRB:, per. 110 days) again this star was not visible in the eastern most of the ‘Three Boxes’ asterism.

• NSV 15682, SAO 38803, BD +48 0908 (mv 8.4 - 9.6, var. type E:) was visible and definitely brighter than nearby HIP 15862 which is mag. 9.0. This is in the ‘Bromeliad’ asterism.

• NSV 15684, BD +47 0819 (mv 8.5 - 10.0) is easily visible each time I'm out observing. I still need to look into this star a bit more to see what is meant by ‘Flared on 9 Jan 1992’. This star is in the tail of the ‘Segmented Dog’ asterism.

The last two stars are New Suspected Variables (NSVs). I don't know it they are ‘known’ variables yet.

The total number of stars plotted in SALC 34N was 277 in 22 separate asterisms. Twelve new stars were plotted that weren't on the original chart.

While Still @ the Office - Wed, 2 Nov '05

Arrived home as Gemini rose
beyond twin water towers
of the Upper East Side.

Central Park Observing - 30 Oct. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Sat-Sun, 30-31 Oct. 2005 (~6:10p-12:45a)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted)
Observers: Charlie R., Peter T., Kin L.
Conditions: winds mainly variable & from the southwest 3-12 m.p.h., temperature 64°-58°F

First day of ‘standard time’ observing with friends. The skies were clear with a few patches of light cloud which cleared as the temperature dropped.

The first part of the evening was spent nova hunting in Perseus. The current search area (SALC 34N) was completed in 2h00m (6:40p-8:30p). This area is 50 minutes in ‘right ascension’ by 5 degrees of ‘declination’. I took a ten minute break around 7:25p. The whole area was covered with the binocular limiting magnitude (BLM) a few tenths short of ideal due to the light cloud cover for part of the session.

The balance of the night was spent talking and observing.

Peter's 10" dobsonian was mainly aimed at Mars and the views were spectacular when seeing allowed. I don't know much about the topography of Mars but a lot was seen including a few glimpses of Hellas. Hellas was only visible when the dusky markings near the southern limb were clearly seen. These markings were not visible while the disk was skipping about. The appearance of Hellas was as if it were being held in the arms of a spider.

A lighter gap along the dark bar, well east of Syrtis Major, was obvious. This appears to be between Mare Cimmerium and Mare Tyrrehenum.

It was good to have the 10" to view this close approach of Mars. I haven't taken out the Televue-76 in awhile. It would probably have been a bit frustrating, but nonetheless satisfying, to have viewed Mars solely with a 3" glass.

Objects observed with the 10x70's:

• Globular Clusters:

Both M15 in Pegasus and M2 in Aquarius were placed in the 10x70's for all to view.

• Open Clusters:

M34 in Perseus was looked at early on in the 10x70s's.

NGC 2281 in Auriga (mag. 5.4): star hopped from Gemini to an asterism that looked like the five on the side of a dice. To it's lower left was a peaked roof-like asterism with the cluster sitting on the right edge of the roof. Fairly obvious, elongated and small with some stars resolved. With averted vision the cluster was more easily picked out from the background stars and appeared nebulous. This was a pleasure to view in the 10x70's. Peter was able to see it but no one else felt they saw the object.

• Solar System:

At least half a dozen Taurid meteors were seen. The ones spotted naked eye were bright, fast and fairly white. Two were seen in the binoculars.

Uranus was seen by star hopping from the ‘Water Jar’ in Aquarius. Some movement has been noticed over the past month. This is probably due more to our motion than to Uranus'.

Saturn was placed in the 10x70's with the Beehive Cluster at the top edge of the 5.3° field of view.

• Double Stars:

ψ Draconis (mag. 4.9 & 6.1 / sep. 30") easily split with the 10x70's and clearly seen by the majority of the group.

π Andromedae (mag. 4.4 & 8.6 / sep. 35.6) not so easily split since the secondary is near the limit of the 10x70's. The large four magnitude difference doesn't make the task any easier. Both Peter and myself were able to see the dimmer star in the correct position. We confirmed this with a view in the 10" dob.

η Persei (mag. 3.8 & 8.5 / sep. 28.3) tried in the 10x70's but not successful. Splits easily with the 10". The problem with this pair is probably the 4.5 mag. difference between the components.

• Nova Hunting:

Category 2 - Stars needing effort to see:

Seventeen stars were not plotted on the chart and they all fell under this category. The magnitude range was 8.88 - 9.47. Excluding five outliers, two with bright magnitudes of 8.88 & 8.91 plus three with dim magnitudes of 9.36, 9.38 & 9.47, the ‘core’ range for stars needing some effort to view was 9.03 - 9.23.

After taking a closer look at the three dimmest stars I found that two are close doubles with incorrect combined magnitudes:

• BU 1294, TYC 3311-1731-1, SAO 38740, BD +46 0734
RA 03h 20m 40.6s / Dec +46° 40' 47.5"

This star is listed as mag. 9.47. The bright stars in this multiple are 9.66 & 10.28. Separation of the components was 8.1" / P.A. 237° in 1991 & 5.4" / P.A. 54° in 1896. The combined magnitude is 9.17. This falls well within the ‘core’ range listed above. This star is located in the ‘Small Witch's Hat’.

• HLD 8, TYC 3320-1240-1, HD 21539, BD +49 0950
RA 03h 30m 34.7s / Dec +49° 47' 21.2"

This star is listed as mag. 9.38. The bright stars in this multiple are mag. 9.42 & 9.79. Separation of the components was 2.3" / P.A. 177° in 1998 & 1.9" / P.A. 177° in 1881. The combined magnitude is 8.84 making it 0.2 brighter than the ‘core’ range listed above. This star is located in the bottom ‘left’ extention of the ‘Bromeliad’.

• TYC 3326-1645-1
RA 03h 46m 46.1s / Dec +46° 29' 54.1"

This star is listed as mag. 9.36. The catalogs don’t show that this as a multiple star. Maybe the mag. of the star is incorrect or it is slightly variable. It is over a full tenth of a mag. dimmer than the ‘core’ range listed above. This star is located in the ‘tail end’ of the ‘Nautilus’.

Fourteen stars were plotted on the chart and took some effort to notice. The magnitude range of these were 8.51 - 9.01. Excluding the two brightest at magnitudes 8.51 & 8.58 the ‘core’ range for stars needing some effort to view was 8.70 - 9.01.

Category 1 - Stars easily seen:

This category is difficult to quantify without looking at all of the stars at the dim end of this group. Looking at the data above I would say the stars in this range are probably all brighter than approximately 8.7. Analysis of all the stars in this group should reveal some discrepancies as seen in the group above. Over the two hour session the BLM appeared to fall short by a few tenths due to some very sparse and light cloud cover. This cleared up towards the end of the task.

Variable Stars:

Only 4 variables are looked for in this region on a regular basis and I only noted whether they were seen or not:

• Y Per (mv 8.4 - 10.3, var. type Mira, per. 248.6 days) was visible in the ‘Bowtie’ asterism and was in the magnitude range 8.6 - 8.9.

• V410 Per (mv 8.8 - 9.4, var. type SRB:, per. 110 days) was not visible in the eastern most of the ‘Three Boxes’ asterism.

• NSV 15682, SAO 38803, BD +48 0908 (mv 8.4 - 9.6, var. type E:) was visible and possibly brighter than 8.7. This is in the ‘Bromeliad’ asterism.

• NSV 15684, BD +47 0819 (mv 8.5 - 10.0) is easily visible each time I'm out observing. I assumed from the note ‘Flared on 9 Jan 1992’ meant it was at or below mag. 10.0 and shot up once to mag. 8.5 in 1992. I'll need to look into this star a bit more. This star is in the tail of the ‘Segmented Dog’ asterism.

The last two stars are New Suspected Variables (NSVs) and aren't accepted variable stars yet.

The total number of stars plotted in SALC 34N was 342 in 24 separate asterisms.

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Overall a very successful evening out. It was enjoyable having the full TotL crew in attendance.