Digital Camera in Bryant Park

On the 14th of March I was practicing with my digital camera (Lumix FZ-30 w/12x optical zoom) in Bryant Park near the N.Y. Public Library. The park's center lawn is being resodded. An annual event.

While looking for birds to photograph, mainly sparrows and pigeons, I spotted an odd shape walking along the south side of the 'lawn'. After a minute the bird showed itself. Surprise. This was the first time I've seen this bird in Bryant Park.

Below is a photo of the Bryant Park 'lawn' followed by two images of the American Woodcock seen there.

Click on photos for an 800 pixel wide image.

Details for Bryant Park photo:
F/2.8 @ 1/1000 second (focal length 35mm)


Details for American Woodcock photo (above):
F/3.7 @ 1/40 second (focal length 420mm)


Details for American Woodcock photo (above):
F/3.7 @ 1/30 second (focal length 420mm)

• Click here to see a cropped section from the original 8 mega-pixel image. The backfield of the bird is in motion so only the head & bill is in focus.

• Click on image of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 for a review of the camera on 'Digital Professional Review'.

Match Five Against The Swedes

U.S.A. v. Sweden

Missed the match with the Italians.
Swedes strong — Americans keep up nicely.
No steals, deuces swapped through four ends.
Americans force Swedes to take one in 5th.
Swedes return the favor in the 6th.
Hammer to button for Swedes for one. A fine end!
Pete with a chance to take 1 in the 8th - Yes!
U.S. opportunity to lie 4 before the hammer - YES!
Thirds can't decide third stone — Americans 2.
Not enough stones left for the Swedes.

U.S.A. 10 — Sweden 6

Number Three for U.S.A.

U.S.A. v. New Zealand

Americans still looking good!

U.S.A. 10 — New Zealand 4

Match Two For The American Men

U.S.A. v. Finland

Both teams blanking nicely.
3 ends completed — all tied.
After 6 ends — Americans 1 up.
All tied into 9th end. Fenson looking to blank ... yes!
Questionable choice for Fenson's hammer.

U.S.A. 3 — Finland 4

Opening Match for The States

U.S.A. v. Norway

U.S. over Norway after 8 ends.
Handshakes and 5 points before the hammer.

U.S.A. 11 — Norway 5

Daylight Venus Two Days in a Row

Date: 26-Jan-2006 @ 12:30p EST
Magnitude/Size: —4.4 / 57.5"
Alt./Az. (Venus): 28.6° / 209.6°
Elongation: 20.7° West
Illumination/Phase: 6.2% / 151.1°
Alt./Az. (Sun): 30.4° / 185.9°

Conditions for viewing Venus in daylight today were exceptional. It was cold again and the skies were blue and cloudless. Needless to say no one was there in Bryant Park viewing Venus post inferior conjunction while the Sun was up!

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.

Venus is now west of the Sun. My last sighting of Venus was when it was 7° east of Sol — pre-inferior conjunction.

The recent sighting was made with 8.5x42 binoculars. After spotting it in the bins I found it naked eye. The optically unaided view was relatively easy. The planet was steadily seen without the difficulties I was having when Venus was only 0.7% illuminated.

My attempt to find it first, without binoculars, was frustrated by mentally swapping the elevation of Venus with the Sun's altitude.

Inferior conjunction (i.c.) occurred on the 13th of January 2006. Next i.c. happens on August 17th 2007. At the next i.c. Venus' elevation will be close to 55° as it crosses the meridian. This is approximately 25° higher than the recent pass.

Maybe attempts to see the crescent in August next year will be more fruitful.

Addendum: On the 27th of January the skies were clear again so I went out to get a quick glimpse of Venus. While walking along Madison Ave. I happened to look up to the place I thought Venus should be and there it was! This was around 12:10pm. Venus was 30° high. The altitude of the Sun was 31°.

Naked Eye: Crescent Venus Redux

Date: 10-Jan-2006 @ 12:50p EST
Magnitude/Size: —4.1 / 63"
Alt./Az. (Venus): 32.5° / 188.0°
Elongation: 7.0° East
Illumination/Phase: 0.7% / 170.4°
Alt./Az. (Sun): 26.4° / 192.0°

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.

Conditions for viewing Venus in full daylight, naked eye or with binoculars, were less than ideal. High haze and thin clouds were getting in the way.

At 12:35p I arrived at Bryant Park looking to spot Venus in binoculars and was making little headway. Glare from sunlight illuminating the surrounding haze was a problem.

After 10 minutes I moved to a spot where I could determine the azimuth of the Sun. Where the Sun was spotted Venus would arrive above the same point 14 minutes later and approximately 6 degrees higher. This would help pinpoint where Venus should be.

A location was picked so that the Sun, after a few minutes, would be safely tucked away behind a building reducing the glare near the planet's location. It took around 5 minutes to finally see Venus' thin crescent shining weakly through haze and thin clouds.

Looking at the image above produced at the USNO site I can see why a typically brilliant Venus seemed somewhat subdued. This and the haze combined to make this attempt more difficult than usual. This was no six second sighting!

Question: What is the surface brightness of a crescent this size compared to the surface brightness of a gibbous Venus near opposition where it was a relatively easy object (less that 4° from the Sun) in a pair of 10×70's?

Relocating Venus with the 8.5×42 binoculars after taking some notes wasn't easy even though I knew the exact position. A minute or two was spent glassing the area before recovering it again. The last time Venus was spotted was around 12:55p.

Viewing the planet naked eye was attempted but without success.

Manhattan North: Naked Eye View

Thirty-nine Stars

Click image to enlarge.

Overcast conditions with rain has predominated lately so it was good to see clear skies on Wednesday morning.

On cold northerly winds, around 1 o'clock in the morning, the clouds cleared and I spent some time looking towards the north to see how dim a star I could glimpse.

The image above is approximately 60° x 80°.

The ‘bright’ star between the Guardians of the Pole and the handle of the Big Dipper is Thuban (α Draconis). The star a bit above it was the dimmest star seen. This star (10 Draconis) is magnitude 4.6.

Alcor, a companion to Mizar in the bend of the Big Dipper's handle, was picked up but is too close to the brighter star to make out.

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:

---

• 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)

---

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