Asteroids Seen Through Year-end 2005

So far 6 asteroids have been spotted and documented.

The latest is the bright asteroid 4 Vesta.

Details and links for Vesta added to this post.


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: m6.5, 30-Dec-2005, Fujinon 10x70's
• 2 Pallas: no writeup for Pallas exists

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

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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 the Fujinon 10x70's.

Vesta is around the ‘knees’ 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 nice ‘kite’ shape. Vesta can be sen as the tail of this kite.

The stars surrounding Vesta form another kite. If the δ Gem kite is pointing downwards then the three 7th mag. stars around 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

Another Attempt: Crescent Venus

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 a few degrees higher than expected. 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

Looking to check on how many asteroids I've seen I didn't have one place to look up these details. Hence, the purpose for this post.

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.

• 63 Ausonia: m10.1, 16-Sep-2003, TeleVue-76
• 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 documentation 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

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 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

Introduction: Nova Hunting

Nova hunting started in earnest on 8 Nov 2004. Searching for new stars involves studying small areas of the night sky with binoculars & memorizing patterns of stars in order to see whether the light from an exploding star is cruising past Earth.

Observations are done with binoculars in order to create asterisms, mini constellations, which will be used to create a map to assist in future sessions. The maps are used until the patterns are committed to memory.

Systematic nova hunting has been an activity pursued by amateur astronomers for decades. Visual hunting is done by fewer amateurs than photographic nova patrols.

Most discoveries these days are spotted photographically. A photographer will image an area of the sky over several nights, then compare the images in order to spot any changes. If something appears to have changed research is needed to eliminate false positives i.e. known variable stars, asteroids or image defects.

Hunting for novae photographically is reliable in the right hands but reporting a new find takes longer since the images need to be developed digitally or chemically and analyzed at a later date. This gives the visual hunter some hope that she/he will be able to report a discovery earlier than a photographer would.

This web log is an attempt to document the process of visual nova hunting from inside the borders of New York City.

Summaries thru Feb. 2005

Table of first set of observations. Twenty-two sessions focused on 3 Search Area Location Charts (SALC). The first in Aquila (#89), the next in Auriga (#53) and the most recent in Monoceros (#93).

SALC Date & Tot. Time  BLM    Optics
 93  2005/02/19 3h25m  8.6 Fujinon 7x50
 93  2005/02/05 3h55m  8.6 Fujinon 7x50
 93  2005/01/23 1h15m  8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 93  2005/01/18 0h50m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2005/01/15 0h50m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/27 1h00m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/27 0h30m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 93  2004/12/27 1h00m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 93  2004/12/25 1h05m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/20 2h10m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/08 2h25m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/05 1h45m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/04 0h15m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/03 1h55m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/12/02 1h50m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/11/29 0h40m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 89  2004/11/26 0h20m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 53  2004/11/26 1h30m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 89  2004/11/15 1h00m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 89  2004/11/13 1h40m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 89  2004/11/09 1h15m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
 89  2004/11/08 1h20m ~8.5 Fujinon 7x50
     ----------------------------------
     Total nights: 22
     Total time:   31h55m

1st Night: '05 Fall Season

Tonight I arrived at TotL (northeast corner of the Great Lawn in Central Park) at 11:30p with Peter, Kin and Charlie already observing.

Nova hunting started at 11:55p and was interrupted by the lawn sprinklers going off at 12:05a. Around 12:30a the sprinklers ceased. Even with a light wind the mist drifted over our equipment. Lots of maneuvering to get optics onto dry ground. An officer in an SUV stopped by at 12:50a to remind us that the park was closing at 1:00a. Peter and I stayed with optics packed until nearly 2:30a observing and chatting. The officer never returned.

The sky was clear and my attention was on the northeast portion of the sky focusing on Auriga. A check of the naked eye limiting magnitude (NELM) from my apartment window on the Upper East Side was ~4.8. From the park I reached the same limit. Stars used for NELM were HIP 4151 (HD 5015) mag. 4.8 between γ Cas and κ Cas. Also seen was υ1 Cas mag 4.8 between γ Cas and η Cas (Achird). This is dimmer than υ2 Cas. Relating NELM to binocular's limiting magnitude (BLM) will be an ongoing project.

[image: b&w] NELM Cassiopeia mv 4.8 - 5.6

The optics used tonight were a pair of Fujinon 10x70's. They reached to at least magnitude 9.5. Something I need to resolve for this survey is how deeply should I search in order to cover as much ground as quickly as possible with a decent chance of finding a nova. Determining how much brighter than the BLM is the key. What I'll attempt to do next time out is to bin the stars seen in the 'bins' based on how difficult they are to see. I'm thinking of 5 groupings but will finalize this in the field:

1 - obvious even with sunglasses on
3 - dimmest star seen with no effort
5 - seen after searching for an extended period

I've decided for now to keep this binary and will work with 2 groups:

1 - star seen with no effort
2 - seen after searching for a short period

1-2 Oct 2005: Time spent nova hunting ~30 minutes from 11:55p-12:55a.

Dimmest stars seen in 2 asterisms (Double Peaked Triangle & One-armed Stickman) in SALC 53:

HD 280232 (v mag 9.5)
TYC 2894-1223-1 -- Star in double system
Sources: PtfP 9.53; Tycho-2 VTmag 9.593 (err 0.029); GSC-2.2 Bjmag 10.30 (err 0.04) / Vmag 9.59 (err 0.03); GSC Pmag 9.38 (err 0.40); SAO Pmag 10.0 / Vmag 8.9; AGK3 Pmag 10.0; HD Ptm 10.0; BD mag 9.0

HD 30896 (v mag 9.3)
TYC 2399-600-1 -- Star
Sources: PtfP 9.28; Tycho-2 VTmag 9.31 (err 0.028); GSC Pmag 9.26 (err 0.23); AGK3 Pmag 9.3; SAO Pmag 9.3 / Vmag 8.7; HD Ptm 9.00; BD mag 8.8

HD 277396 (v mag 9.3)
TYC 2899-1549-1 -- Star
Sources: PtfP 9.26; Tycho-2 VTmag 9.433 (err 0.021); GSC & GSC-ACT Pmag 8.76 (err 0.40); SAO Pmag 10.8 / Vmag 8.8; AGK3 Pmag 10.8; HD Mag 10.8; BD mag 9.0; 2MASS Bmag 10.91 / Rmag 9.26; GSC-2.2 Bjmag 11.36 / Vmag 9.43; USNO-B1.0 B1mag 11.19, B2mag 10.09 / R1mag 8.45, R2mag 8.38; USNO-A2.0 Bmag 11.6 / Rmag 8.1

Catalogs:
2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources [2mass]
AGK3 Catalogue (Dieckvoss, Heckmann 1975) [i/61b]
BD: Bonner Durchmusterung (Argelander 1859-1903) [i/122]
GCVS: Gen. Cat. of Variable Stars 4.2 (Vol. I-III) [ii/250]
GSC: HST Guide Star Cat., ver. 1.2 (Lasker+ 1996) [i/254]
GSC-2.2 Catalogue (STScI, 2001) [GSC-2.2, i/271]
GSC-ACT: HST GSC, ver. GSC-ACT (Lasker+ 1996-99) [gsc-act]
HD: HDE (H. Draper) Charts: p.p.m. (Nesterov+ 1995) [iii/182]
PftP: Planetarium for the Palm, version 2.4beta4c
SAO: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Cat. [i/131a]
Tycho-2 Catalogue (Hog+ 2000) [i/259]
UCAC2 Catalogue (Zacharias+ 2003) [i/289]
USNO-A2.0 Catalogue (Monet+ 1998) [i/252]
USNO-B1.0 Catalog (Monet+ 2003) [i/284]

The Greek alphabet: α alpha, β beta, γ gamma, δ delta, ε epsilon, ζ zeta, η eta, θ theta, ι iota, κ kappa, λ lambda, μ mu, ν nu, ξ xi, ο omicron, π pi, ρ rho, σ sigma, τ tau, υ upsilon, φ phi, χ chi, ψ psi, ω omega

Changing Skies: 3 Oct 2005

On the evening of October 3rd I noticed the variable AW Persei, in the nova search area SALC 53, was dimmer than usual. Search Area Location Chart (SALC) 53 lies wholely inside Auriga. Two asterisms extend slightly beyond Auriga's border. One of the them, the 'Double Peaked Triangle', extends into Perseus where the variable is located.

On this night I was reviewing some asterisms from my north facing window on the Upper East Side. Shortly after scanning the area I saw a problem with the figure's outline. One of the peaks was dimmer than usual. From my previous research on this area I remembered that AW Persei was in this section of the sky. A quick check confirmed this was AW Persei.

This is a Classical Cepheid variable star with a period of 6.463589 days. Maximum brightness is magnitude 7.04. Minimum is magnitude 7.89. I haven't made a variable star estimate yet so all I could say about the brightness (sometime before midnight) was that it was noticably dimmer than 'usual' -- possibly magnitude 7.5 or fainter. The optics used were a pair of 8.5x42's.

It was a nice boost in confidence to be able to clearly see, within a matter of seconds, that something was 'up' in a familiar area of the sky. When nova hunting, I'm still referring to charts of asterisms and noting the stars I've seen. My hope is to acquire a knowledge of the search areas so I can scan the skies with a pair of tripod mounted binoculars without having to rely on printed charts. This find was made without referring to charts since I was only reviewing some of the more familiar areas in this section of the sky.

Image Formats: AW Persei

Could you do me a favor and view the images on the screen & print them out and let me know what you think? Click on 'Click for more ... ' below. The original's are the color images. The black & white's are processed to convert color to white on black and then I create a negative.

Thanks!

[image: b&w] SALC 53 'Dbl Peaked Triangle' w/AW Per

Font = Trebuchet MS regular 9pt
Star size: 7/1
Display Magnitude: 0
Mark double stars with horizontal line: off
Filetype/size = Bitmap reduced to 2 colors (1 bit)/36K
Processed = Adj > Threshold (1) Adj. > Negative Image

Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude Charts

Attached is a naked eye limiting magnitude (NELM) chart for Cassiopeia. The details on how it was processed in both SkyMap Pro and Paint Shop Pro are included.

[Image] NELM Cassiopeia mv 4.8 - 5.6

SkyMap Pro:
Constellations > General: Figures & Boundaries
Limiting magnitude: 5.6 (Proper Names only)
Stars > Display: Lim. mag 5.6 | Display Magnitude 0 |Dot size 10/2
Stars > Labels: Proper Names (all stars)
Stars > Options: Mark double stars with horizontal line (off)
Stars > Options: Mark variable stars w/hollow symbol (label check)
Coordinate grids: Scale line (on)
File > Prefs > Fonts > Screen: Star proper name (9pt)
File > Prefs > Fonts > Screen: Constellation name (12pt)
File > Prefs > Fonts > Screen: Compass (8pt)
File > Save as Picture: 650 x 424 pixels (Bitmap)

Paint Shop Pro:
Image: Adjust > Brightness & Contrast > Threshold (1)
- Adjust > Negative Image
Font: Bayer letters (Symbol 12 pt, Bold)
- Magnitudes (Trebuchet MS 9 pt, Bold, Underline)
- Labels unrelated to Bayer letters (Trebuchet MS 8 pt)
File > Save as: Windows or OS/2 Bitmap
Filesize: 38K

A Year of Twilight: A Graphical View

The graphic below will be used to create charts showing when a celestial object is above a certain altitude (i.e. 30 & 50 degrees above either horizon). The thick black line shows when the star is transiting the meridian.

Overlaying the three twilights shows when the star is 'at altitude'.

[Image] Twilight Chart
[Image] γ Cas - Transit & 30°/50° Alt.

Definitions:

• Civil Twilight (outside lines) is defined to begin in the morning, and to end in the evening when the center of the Sun is geometrically 6 degrees below the horizon. This is the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under good weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; at the beginning of morning civil twilight, or end of evening civil twilight, the horizon is clearly defined and the brightest stars are visible under good atmospheric conditions in the absence of moonlight or other illumination. In the morning before the beginning of civil twilight and in the evening after the end of civil twilight, artificial illumination is normally required to carry on ordinary outdoor activities. Complete darkness, however, ends sometime prior to the beginning of morning civil twilight and begins sometime after the end of evening civil twilight.

• Nautical Twilight (middle lines) is defined to begin in the morning, and to end in the evening, when the center of the sun is geometrically 12 degrees below the horizon. At the beginning or end of nautical twilight, under good atmospheric conditions and in the absence of other illumination, general outlines of ground objects may be distinguishable, but detailed outdoor operations are not possible, and the horizon is indistinct.

• Astronomical Twilight (inside lines) is defined to begin in the morning, and to end in the evening when the center of the Sun is geometrically 18 degrees below the horizon. Before the beginning of astronomical twilight in the morning and after the end of astronomical twilight in the evening the Sun does not contribute to sky illumination; for a considerable interval after the beginning of morning twilight and before the end of evening twilight, sky illumination is so faint that it is practically imperceptible.

Definitions from 'U.S. Naval Observatory: Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions'.

Astronomical Almanacs for SALCs

The following charts graphically show when a section of the sky is above a certain altitude (i.e. 30 & 50 degrees above either horizon). The thick black line shows when the area is transiting the meridian. SALCs are Search Area Location Charts sectioning off areas of the Milky Way used for nova hunting.

Overlaying the three twilights will clearly show when the area is visible in the evening after astronomical twilight and before Central Park closes at 1:00 AM.

The pink upright lines represent the beginning of at least 1 hour of viewing time before the park closes or when the area is between 30° & 50° shortly after astronomical twilight. This is considered a 'season' and exists both when the area is rising and when it is setting.

[Image] SALC 89 in Aquila
Seasons for this region:
• Rising: Jun. 1st (midnight) - Jul. 13th (10:27p)
• Setting: Aug. 15th (midnight) - Nov. 15th (6:12p)

[Image] SALC 34 (north) in Perseus
Seasons for this region:
• Rising: Aug. 30th (midnight) - Nov. 28th (6:07p)
• Setting: Jan. 6th (midnight) - Mar. 26th (7:47p)

[Image] SALC 53 in Auriga
Seasons for this region:
• Rising: Oct. 9th (midnight) - Dec. 29th (6:15p)
• Setting: Feb. 1st (midnight) - Apr. 10th (9:10p)

[Image] SALC 93 in Monoceros
Seasons for this region:
• Rising: Nov. 6th (midnight) - Feb. 10th (6:54p)
• Setting: Jan. 20th (midnight) - Apr. 9th (9:04p)
• Daily double: Jan. 20th (midnight) - Feb. 10th (6:54p)

(In order to view the chart properly you may need to hover the cursor over lower right corner of the image to 'Expand to regular size')

Central Park Observing - 15 Oct. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Sat-Sun, 15-16 Oct. 2005 (~10:30p-12:45a)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted); 8.5x42 Swarovski's
Observers: myself, Kin plus 8 passersby including George
Conditions: winds from the west from 7-9 m.p.h., temperature 59°-58°F

When I arrived at ~10:30p Kin was there speaking with another regular, George. Hearing snatches of conversation I could tell George was relating tales from his solo adventures across the globe.

After setting up the binoculars on the Pleiades both Kin and George enjoyed the view. Mars and the nearly full Moon respectively were placed in the binoculars as I was assembling the chair. George was thrilled with the view of the Moon calling it 'the gem of the sky'. He can Bogart optics like no other. A true connoisseur!

The night sky was finally clear after many days of overcast nights. Magnitude 4.8 stars were spotted easily but I didn't make an effort to do a true estimate of the limiting magnitude. More time than expected was spent showing the public and not looking for novae.

Objects observed with the 10x70's:

GLOBULAR CLUSTERS:

• M2 in Aquarius [mv 6.3]: spotted in the 8.5x42's and then picked up in the 10x70's. Kin was able to pick up the less than stellar glow. The star hop was made from β Aqr (Sadalsuud) [mv 2.9]. Three stars [mv 5.8-6.9] north of (above) Sadalsuud form a triangle whose base points in the general direction of M2. M2's distance from β Aqr is ~4.8°.

• M15 Great Pegasus Cluster [mv 6.0]: spotted easily in the 8.5x42's and much easier than M2. The star hop was from ε Pegasi (Enif) [mv 2.4]. A line from θ Pegasi (Baham, which is southeast of ε) [mv 3.5] to Enif leads directly to M15. The distance from Enif to M15 is ~4.2°. The stars immediately surrounding the globular cluster are close and bright making for a rich and recognizable field in the binocular's 5.3° field of view.

OPEN CLUSTERS:

• M45 in Taurus (The Pleiades): first object for the night. Enjoyed by all including a number of passersby. A group of three young people (2 girls and a guy) stopped by. One of the young ladies was more interested than her friends and stuck around to view as many objects as I could show her. She was impressed by all but was blown away by the number of stars seen in the Pleiades compared to what could be seen naked eye. She asked many times what was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in the night sky from Central Park and I wasn't able to give a definitive answer since all of it is pretty amazing to me. I called out a number events with 'Lunar Eclipse' heading the list.

• Hyades in Taurus: showed this to George and he was less than overwhelmed but still enjoyed looking at the view.

• Perseus OB Association (surrounding α Persei (Mirfak)): looked great in the 10x70's with each blue/white star perfectly formed in the optics. Showed this one to George also. Turns out he couldn't get enough of the Moon.

• M36 in Auriga: easily spotted in the binoculars below the 'Cheshire Cat'. Pointed this asterism out to Kin and he recognized it as a smiley face. He then easily picked it up in his 7x50's.

• M37 in Auriga: very dim. Dimmest object viewed and was not picked up by Kin. I star hopped to it starting at the False Kids (τ, ν & υ at the apex) which point to M37. An asterism of three stars near M37 form a 'T' with M37 as the upper left portion of the short arm. M37 is ~4.8° from the tip of the 'False Kids'. The observation was confirmed with Planetarium for the Palm. Very subtle.

SOLAR SYSTEM:

• Moon: a little more than a day from full. Showed to all who passed by. All were impressed by the view. I didn't look closely and didn't try to identify the craters showing up on the following limb.

• Uranus in Aquarius: star hopped to it from the western stars of the 'Water Jar' (π & γ Aqr [mv 4.4-4.7 & 3.9]) which point to θ Aqr (Ancha) [mv 4.2] to the south. From Ancha it's a short (~5°) walk ESE to Uranus. Five brightish stars surround the planet. Three form a long isoscoles triangle with Uranus just east of the apex. Uranus is the tip of a west pointing, less than isosceles, triangle which is ~1° wide.

• Neptune in Capricorn: found δ Cap (Deneb Algedi) [mv 2.9] to the lower left of the already spotted Sadalsuud (β Aqr). From here it was short ~9.1° hop through γ [mv 3.7], ι (iota) [mv 4.3] to θ [mv 4.1]. With θ Cap at the base of an elongated 'Keystone' Neptune is the right object on the narrow side of the trapezoid.

• Mars in Taurus: seen naked eye with a quick glimpse in the binoculars. Would have been nice to seen in the large scope.

OTHER OBJECTS:

• Alberio in Cygnus: double star easily split in the 10x70's. Showed to both Kin and George.

• 'Coat Hanger' (asterism in Vulpecula): the three bright stars in the head of the Eagle (Aquila) should roughly point to the 'Coat Hanger'. I scanned for it knowing it was inside the 'Summer Triangle' closest to Altair.

• M57: Ring Nebula in Lyra: This was the only object looked for and not seen. Kin asked whether I was able to see this object in the binoculars. I told him it would be tough but would look like a slightly out of focus star. Between β & γ Lyrae, closer to Sheliak (β Lyr) I could see a nearly equilateral triangle made up of stars from mag. 8.3-8.8 which point to M57, south of the triangle. Between the dim triangle and the wide binocular double (optical?) mags 7.7 & 8.1 an 8.7 mag star was seen but I couldn't pick up the nebula just southwest of this star. M57 at the time was ~23° above the horizon.

COMMENTS:

I was impressed by the effect the sidewalk astronmers at TotL, and elsewhere, had on the few people we met last night. Besides Kin & George three groups stopped by and each knew of the group in one way or another.

One the guys in the first pair asked if an astronomy club met at the top of the lawn. I said we did but we weren't a club, just a group of friends.

The young guy hanging with the two girls knew we observed in the area and I invited the interested young lady to visit us again especially when Saturn was visible before the 1 AM curfew.

Then a couple stopped by both taking a took at the Moon. The woman mentioned that she was in the park to view the Leonids on a cold November night around Central Park's Great Lawn and was really impressed by the event. I asked how she found out about the gathering, which she viewed in pajamas and a parka, and said she probably read about it somewhere. I was interested in talking to her more but the husband pulled them away after thanking us for the view of the Moon. Overall an excellent night.

The nova hunt was postponed until 12:00am which I'll write about in another post. It was nice that the sprinklers never activated!

Field Research: 15 October 2005

Last night I attempted to test two things:

• How high can I view using mounted binoculars?
• When does a star take some effort to view it?

The first answer is less than 50° which is what I thought. This is the reason for placing an SALC season between an altitude of 30° & 50°. Anything higher than this, with a standard mount, is a strain on the neck.

I started the nova hunt, which was more like research, at midnight and ended shortly before the 1am curfew. I worked on four asterisms in SALC 53 in Auriga.

The number of stars viewed was 78 and 57 (73%) were deemed easily seen without having to expend any effort to pull them out from the background. The stars seen with a little effort totaled 21 (27%). The magnitude range for the second group was 8.6 to 9.3. For the first group there was consistency in 3 out of the 4 asterisms. The dimmest magnitude seen with ease appears to be 8.4-8.5. Some stars marked as easily seen fell into the mag. range for the 'seen with a little effort' group. These are possibly mislabeled magnitudes in the catalog.

Based on the above data I will print out charts down to mag. 9.0 and see if this works out.

Central Park Observing - 17 Oct. 2005

Location: TotL - Central Park's Great Lawn (north end)
Date/time: Mon, 17 October 2005 (9:00p-11:25p)
Optics: 10x70 Fujinon's (mounted)
Conditions: winds variable: calm to 6 mph; temperature 55°-53°F; cloud cover: high thin cirrus for most the evening

Arrived at ~9:00p at the 'top of the lawn'. High cirrus covered the sky with patches of lighter cover in places. The brighter stars in Cassiopeia were visible including η Cas. The cloud cover didn't interfere much.

Since I was on my own at TotL I started nova hunting immediately. Tonight's task was to work on a new area of the sky since the current area I'm working on in Auriga is rising a bit too late for now - around 11:15p.

The new search area is half of SALC 34, the northern portion, which includes Mirfak and the surrounding Perseus OB3 Association. I'm cutting the SALCs in half in order to better represent them on paper. When printing stars to magnitude 9.0 a full SALC is very crowded on a sheet of 8.5 x 11".

The hunt started around 9:20p ending around 11:00p. A number of passersby stopped to chat. One couple asked about the 'upcoming' lunar eclipse. I had forgotten about this and showed them on the Palm that it already happened that morning on the 17th around 8:14am & was probably visible on the west coast. We talked about eclipses both lunar and solar and in the process her dog ran off along the path. When this was pointed out to her she said "that's OK, this was more interesting" then went off to fetch her pet!

Another couple on roller blades stopped by and the young woman asked to see something. I told her I wasn't looking at anything special and 'offered her the Moon.' She said 'that's what I was looking for!' She enjoyed a long drink at the eyepieces. Their names are Eric and Raina and they both know Derek Snow. Also, Claudia and John stopped by to chat and said to say hello to Team TotL.

For ~1h40m I focused on looking at patterns in Perseus to see what the new asterisms would be. I covered approximately half the region tallying ~200 stars. Approximately 10% of the stars fell into the category of taking some effort to see convincingly. This process of starting up a new search area is enjoyable and I spend the time comparing stars seen in the binoculars with the printed chart which goes down to magnitude 9.0. All the stars on the chart were seen including 16 additional ones. I'll check to see what the magnitude of the additional stars are in order to print these out. I didn't check to see if any were 'new'. The key to creating the asterisms is not to make things that look like something but to make sure the stars in each section make sense relative to each other. There are natural blank spaces around groups of stars which makes the task fairly easy. I hope to solidify the patterns in SALC 34(N) by the end of the weekend.

Reviewing the areas constantly should make covering these groups easier in the future. The large layout in time right now will hopefully pay off in the future.

There was one odd thing seen while observing near the area surrounding Mirfak. I noticed a change in brightness in the corner of my eye. When it happened again I swung the binoculars a bit to view what was going on. It was a tumbling satellite. It was moving from left to right and was visible in the binoculars even when it wasn't flashing. When it brightened it was obvious in the optics. Possibly 5th magnitude. The time between flashes was less than a minute. I didn't time them. This was seen shortly after setting up - around 10:00p-10:20p.

Objects observed with the 10x70's:

OPEN CLUSTERS:
• NGC 663 in Cassiopeia: star hopped from δ Cas (Ruchbah) to a 'water jar' looking asterism a little more than 2° northeast of Ruchbah. The cluster was small and very tight. At least three stars were resolved.
• M103 in Cassiopeia: fairly bright, small and elongated in the binoculars.

SOLAR SYSTEM:
• The Moon: I pointed the binoculars at the Moon for Raina but didn't look at the Moon myself. Before arriving in the park, at home, I took a long look at the just rising Moon and saw that the eastern libration was favorable as Peter has mentioned. Just southeast of the twin bright craters east of Tycho (one of them is called Stevinus) there was a large expanse of maria. I don't know the name of this region and will look it up tonight. It was located very close to the southeast limb. If anyone knows name of this portion of the Moon please drop me a line.

Creating Asterisms: SALC 34 North

This is as good a time as any to document the process of working on a new search area location chart (SALC). Since the current SALC (#53 in Auriga) is rising a little too late these days I'm working on a new chart - SALC 34 (north) in Perseus.

I prefer working on rising SALCs since they are located in the darkest portion of Central Park's night sky ... the northeast.

The 1st night of observing (Mon., Oct. 17th) was under less than ideal conditions. High cirrus impacted the binocular limiting magnitude (BLM) by a few tenths of a magnitude for the 1st hour. The situation improved when the cloud cover started to dissipate.

When viewing through cirrus, stars of magnitude 8.6 and dimmer took some effort to see. Later on stars down to magnitude 8.8 - 8.9 were steadily seen without effort. The total number of stars examined for creating asterisms was 193. This is approximately half of the northern portion of SALC 34.

Time spent observing was 1h40m (9:20p-11:00p). A few minutes were spent talking to passersby about the night sky.

After noting the stars that are easily seen and the ones that took some effort I sketched in a preliminary set of asterisms. While viewing at the binoculars I'll sometimes just note that a star was easily seen by underlining it. Stars taking some effort to see are circled.

At home I create further connections based on what I remember seeing in the field and what appears to make the most sense.

Creating asterisms without sitting behind the binoculars doesn't seem to work even when knowing the BLM. I tried this with SALC 93 in Monoceros. After reviewing these asterisms in the field I needed to redo all of them.

From this chart I'll study the asterisms and revise connections whenever there's free time. Revisions are inevitable when I get back to the eyepieces.

After feeling comfortable with a preliminary version I'll layout the lines with pencil & straightedge. I'll copy these maps since they take time to create.

When I'm very comfortable with the figures I'll go to the desktop planetarium program Cartes du Ciel (CdC) and create an overlay which will become a permanent record of the asterisms. This overlay becomes a part of each chart I work with in the field. CdC makes the process of creating asterisms to display on a chart fairly easy after learning the 'way.'

From these charts I will hopefully develop a familiarity that will obviate the need for working with charts.

Variables: SALC 34 North

An important task is to identify all variable stars that can become as bright as the stars at the limit of the binocular limiting magnitude (BLM). For the Fujinon 10x70's this is currently ~9.4+. Searching at the BLM takes some effort so I've chosen an effective BLM (eBLM) of mag. 9.0.

For this purpose I set up an Excel file back in December of 2004 to filter on all known variables. This file contains all the stars in the General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS) which numbered 63,265 stars at the time. The filesize is ~37 megabytes.

The outline of the 'search area location chart' (SALC), in Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (Dec), is entered including a buffer zone. The buffer zone should include all stars in asterisms that extend beyond the boundaries of the main search area. This zone varies for each SALC.

SALC 34 (North) in Perseus:
• RA: +03h 50m - +30h 00m (buffer: 00h 07m)
• Dec: +50° - +45° (buffer: +01° 30')

This file identifies all variables in the SALC/buffer zone allowing one to filter on stars in any of the following categories:

• Spans - Stars that span the eBLM and change brightness by at least 3 tenths of a magnitude. These stars will become dimmer and grow brighter than the eBLM. These can easily be confused for a novae without knowing them beforehand. Four stars fall into this category for SALC 34N. See below for details. [Each variable has hyperlinks to two on-line catalogs. The 1st hyperlink after 'Name:' accesses SIMBAD & the last hyperlink accesses the GCVS.]

• Br.>.3 - Stars that change brightness by at least 3 tenths of a magnitude and are listed as always brighter than the eBLM. Four stars fall into this category. Only one, LX Per (8.1 - 8.9) comes close to the eBLM. See details below.

• Dim>.3 - Stars that change brightness by at least three tenths of a magnitude and are listed as always dimmer than the eBLM but no dimmer than three tenths of the eBLM. One star, NSV 15688, falls into this category ranging from 9.1 - 10.3 mag. See below for details.

Historic Novae (SALC 34 complete):

NOVA Persei 1901, GK Persei, [1] [2] - mv 0.2 - 14
RA 3h31m12s / Dec +43°54'15"
From Burnham's Celestial Handbook by R. Burnham Jr.

“Nova Persei 1901. About 4.5° NE of Algol. The first bright nova of the 20th Century, first noticed on February 21, 1901, by the amateur astronomer T.D. Anderson of Edinburgh, Scotland. At that time the star was of the 2nd magnitude, but within 2 days it had increased its light more than 6 times, and attained its maximum brilliancy of magnitude 0.2 on February 23.”

• SEARCH: AAVSO - charts, VSoM, publ. | ADS | Google | wiki.

NOVA Persei 1974, V400 Persei, [1] [2] - mv 8 - 18.26
RA 3h7m38s / Dec +47°7'40"
From “The UK Nova/Supernova Patrol—The First 25 Years” by Guy M. Hurst, 15 April 2000

“However in 1974, a nova was found in Perseus by N. Sanduleak and announced on IAU Circular No. 2716, and later designated V400 Persei. Although the nova had already faded to magnitude 11 by the time it was found on an objective prism plate of November 9, 1974, there was a possibility that it had been brighter at an earlier date and been missed.”

• SEARCH: AAVSO - charts | ADS | Google

Variable Stars (eBLM set to 9.0):

Span's eBLM (Range > mv 0.3):

Name: Y Persei, HD 21280, HIP 16126
RA / Dec: 03h 27m 42.39s / +44° 10' 36.5"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 8.1 - 11.3
Type / Period: Mira / 248.6 days
Spectrum: C4,3e(R4e)
• SEARCH: AAVSO - charts | ADS | Google

Name: V410 Persei, HD 19881, HIP 15026
RA / Dec: 03h 13m 38.65s / +47° 49' 33.9"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 8.8 - 9.4
Type / Period: SRB: (Semiregular late-type) / 110 days
Spectrum: C7,4(Np)

Name: NSV 15682, TYC 3320-1183-1, BD +48 0908
RA / Dec: 03h 25m 13.8s / +49° 10' 04"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 8.4 - 9.6
Type / Period: E: (Eclipsing Binary) / no period listed
Spectrum: K2

Name: NSV 15684, TYC 3316-1812-1, BD +47 0819
RA / Dec: 03h 25m 29.5s / +47° 58' 03"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 8.5 - 10.0
Type / Period: Flare on Jan. 9, 1992 / no period listed
Spectrum: A5V

Brighter than eBLM (Range > mv 0.3):

Name: LX Per, TYC 3315-1535-1, HIP 15003
RA / Dec: 03h 13m 22.37s / +48° 06' 31.3"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 8.1 - 8.93
Type / Period: EA/AR/RS / 8.038207 days
Spectrum: G5IV+G5IV

Name: V572 Per, HD 20096, HIP 15193
RA / Dec: 03h 15m 48.68s / +50° 57' 21.2"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 6.5 - 6.79
Type / Period: EA / no period listed
Spectrum: A0

Name: NSV 15601, HD 17891, HIP 13512
RA / Dec: 02h 54m 00.98s / +47° 09' 39.2"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 6.78 - < 7.5
Type / Period: VAR: / no period listed
Spectrum: B9

Name: NSV 15600, HD 17818, HIP 13462
RA / Dec: 02h 53m 21.07s / +48° 34' 11.8"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 6.17 - 6.55
Type / Period: VAR: / no period listed
Spectrum: G5Iab:

Dimmer than eBLM (Range > mv 0.3):

Name: NSV 15688, TYC 2873-716-1, BD +43 0719
RA / Dec: 03h 26m 52.72s / +44° 21' 50.7"
Magnitude, Max. - Min.: 9.1 - 10.3
Type / Period: no details listed
Spectrum: K0

Visual Nova Hunting: An Opinion

The included quote at the end of this post is from a recently published called ‘Observing Variable Stars, Novae and Supernovae’ by Gerald North published in 2004.

The sentiment expressed by Gerald North is probably commonly felt by most amateur astronomers. [See 9.8 Nova Hunting below.]

The reason I started a visual nova hunting program is to learn as much about the night sky as possible. Studying the Milky Way, which is where most novae occur, is not a bad way to get acquainted. It is also a good way to start up a variable star program which I've been interested in for quite awhile.

The one advantage the visual nova hunter has is the ability to see a nova in real time where the automated patrols, if they rely on delayed processing, will have to wait while the visual hunter has a chance of reporting the find before the outburst is noticed by others.

I don't seriously expect to find a nova in my lifetime due to automated patrols but since I'm having a good time trying I will continue the activity. I think my chances of finding a nova are still somewhat better than hitting the lottery! ;-D

9.8 Nova Hunting

This is a book about observing already known objects with a view to following their brightness changes, not a book about hunting down new examples. However, you are certainly not alone if you hanker to discover new objects yourself - but I must offer a warning. Increasingly professinoal programs of automated sky-searching are mopping up the new objects to be seen in the heavens. In addition a few highly motivated (and usually very expensively equipped) amateurs are vigourously doing the same. Discovering a genuinely new comet, asteroid, variable star, nova, or supernova from your own backyard is now yery much harder to do than it used to be despite modern technology. It is now only fractionally short of 100 per cent certain that someone else will have seen and recorded that new object before you.

If you really are determined to become a nova hunter, then to have even the slightest chance of success you must devote yourself to that task almost entirely. You will have precious little time or energy left for other lines of observational astronomy. If you choose that route, then this is not the book to help you. I do cover nova hunting amongst other subjects in my book Advanced Amateur Astronomy, which was published in its second edition by Cambridge University Press in 1997. The one caveat I would warn you about is that in 1996 (when I wrote that edition) it was still reasonable for hunters to use entirely visual means and a pair of good binoculars to do their hunting. While the chances of success will never quite fall to zero using that method, they cannot be very much above that by now.

Question: How many visual nova hunters are active these days?

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.

---

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

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 - 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.

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 - 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.