Test Table

STARS VISIBLE IN M45 (THE PLEIADES)
Alcyone (η Tau)	2.85	Star Name	x.x
Alcyone (η Tau)	2.85	Star Name	x.x

Naked Eye: Crescent Venus Redux

Date: 10-Jan-2006 @ 12:50p EST

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Magnitude/Size: —4.1/63"
Alt./Az.: 32.5° / 188.0°
Elongation: 7.0° East
Illumination/Phase: 0.7% / 170.4°

Click image to access U.S. Naval Observatory's ‘Apparent Disk of Solar System Object’. The image was created using the USNO site for the time of the attempt. Click the following 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. Haze & thin clouds were the culprits.

I arrived at Bryant Park at 12:35p trying to spot Venus with binoculars first and was making very little headway. Glare from sunlight illuminating the haze was the main problem.

After around 10 minutes I moved to a spot where I could determine the azimuth of the Sun. At the position where the Sun was spotted Venus would arrive at that point around 14 minutes later and approximately 6 degrees higher.

After a few minutes the Sun would be safely hidden behind a building reducing the glare somewhat. It took around 5 minutes to pick up Venus' thin crescent shining weakly through haze and thin clouds.

Looking at the image above produced at the U.S.N.O. site I can see why a typically bright Venus seemed somewhat subdued.

I wonder what the effective surface brightness of this crescent was compared to the surface brightness of 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. A minute or two was spent glassing the area before recovering it again. Last time I spotted Venus was around 12:55p.

Viewing the planet naked eye did not happen.

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Manhattan North: Naked Eye View

Thirty-nine Stars

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 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.