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

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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.

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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)

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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

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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

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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’.

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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]

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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.

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[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.