Peregrine Falcon Update: 30-April-2006

Central Park South: Peregrine Falcons

Male on G.M. Building photo by B. Cacace 35mm film equiv.: 2,600mm | ISO: 80 | Shutter: 1/50 | Aperture: f/4

Female on G.M. Building photo by D. Bruce Yolton 35mm film equiv.: 1,600mm | ISO: 400 | Shutter: 1/320 | Aperture: f/8

Thanks to Bruce Yolton for permission to use the photo of the female Peregrine Falcon above.

Each evening there is generally some activity when visiting the park to view these Peregrine Falcons. Tonight when I arrived both falcons were on the north face of the G.M. Building.

At one point the female appeared agitated in the telescope and soon after lifted & chased another large Peregrine off the territory towards the west. This is the second time I've seen another female Peregrine being chased from the area this year.

Another highlight was seeing the female exchange positions with the male falcon at 5:53p.

I'm convinced that these Peregrines are incubating eggs. Their behavior is consistent. The male has been exiting from below the same fence each time the female has dropped from the fence above.

Click below for a more detailed timeline.

Central Park's Gapstow Bridge 4:50p — 8:10p

• by 4:50p male & female were perched on the N face of the GM Building. Male was near potential nest site. Female was 2 fences to the E.
• while trying to take photos the female moved to a fence 4 in from W edge by 5:15p.
• by 5:37p female looked agitated. She then pursued another female Peregrine W of GM.
• by 5:43p female returned to a fence 6 in from W edge of GM.
• Nest exchange: by 5:53p female drops down to floor of fenced area. Within a minute the male falcon appears at the base of a fence 5 in from the W edge of GM and then flies to a fence 5 in from E edge of GM.
• at 6:46p male Peregrine leaves area heading SE or ‘Manhattan E’.
• I left Gapstow Bridge around 8:10p. Neither falcon reappeared.

Peregrine Falcon Update: 28-April-2006

Central Park South: Peregrine Falcons

Tonight was a rewarding one watching the Peregrine Falcons on the G.M. Building. Donna Browne showed up with a spotting scope. I brought along a 3" refracting telescope. We observed the Peregrines for nearly 2.5 hours. It was good to have so much activity from the Peregrines while Donna was there to observe.

Watching the ‘nest’ exchange at 7:45p was just one of many highlights.

A silver band was easly seen on the female's right leg in the scopes. The photo on the right shows the band — dimly.

Highlights:

• female perched/preening from 6:00p-7:40p on the GM.
• female flew to the fence just above the probable nest site.
• female dropped to flooring below perch at 7:44p.
• male exits from below same fence at 7:45p.
• male perches on fence below GM's roof until well after the end of Civil Twilight. This is when it becomes too dark to see any details at high power. In binoculars the image of the perched Peregrine becomes too indistinct to rely on.

Click below for a more detailed timeline.

Central Park's Gapstow Bridge 6:00p — 8:30p

• spotted a Peregrine on GM at 5:42p before entering park.
• took photos with falcon perched on fence below roof of GM's north face, 3 fences in from west edge.
• arrived at Gapstow Bridge by 6:00p — falcon still perched.
• at 6:52p it took a short flight to the NE corner of GM's roof where it remained until 7:02p.
• from 7:02-7:04p it took off N for a more extended flight returning to NW corner of GM's roof. It was clear this was the female in flight by its size & the molt of its primaries.
• at 7:37p female flew just E of GM then back to a fence 5 in from the W edge of the building.
• at 7:44p female flew to flooring just below fence. Within a minute the male exited from below the same fence the female was perched on. This is a probable nest exchange.
• At 7:45p male flew to a fence below GM's roof 4 in from E edge of building.
• Donna and I remained watching the male perched, facing in, until 10 minutes after Civil Twilight ended. We left the park at 8:30p feeling fairly confident it would stay the night.

Peregrine Falcon Update: 26-April-2006

Digiscoped Image of Peregrine

This image was shot with the same camera as the side-by-side thumbnails below — the ones that look like oil painting details. The difference is this was taken through a telescope that increases the effective focal length by 6.4 times. The camera's 420mm lens is converted to a 2,688mm lens.

Unfortunately the focus not quite right. Practice should help.

This Peregrine Falcon was perched on the north-west corner of the G.M. Building. The photo was taken from Gapstow Bridge just south of Wollman Skating Rink. The approximate distance to the falcon was 1,200 feet or 0.23 miles.

Click below for a timeline.

Central Park's Gapstow Bridge 12:25p — 1:05p

Highlight: apparent nest exchange at 1:04pm.

• Scanned buildings on SE corner of park from 1225p. At 1232 a PF appeared on NW corner of GM's roof.
• At 1240 it made a single move to 6 in (right section) & perched on fence until 1251.
• At 1251 it took off east, then back tracked then proceeded east again. Lost it behind Pierre Hotel.
• Back on NW corner of GM's roof at 1257.
• By 1259 to 1 in (center section) then to 3 in (right section) then to 6 in (right section) by 100. All perches on fencing below GM's roof.
• At 102 launched & circled back to 6 in (right section).
• At 103 lost it while writing.
• At 104 a PF exited from bottom of 6 in (right section) & headed east. Lost it low behind Pierre Hotel.

Central Park's Gapstow Bridge 5:25p — 8:00p

Highlight: male Peregrine chasing a female Peregrine off territory at 5:40pm.

• Arrived at 526p. Saw PF on NW corner of GM's roof before entering park at 520.
• Around 540 male chased larger PF towards the east. Female turned to defend with talons up. Male back to NW corner of GM's roof.
• By 550 off perch, didn't spot it flying away.
• At 554 male flew around GM & disappeared behind GM heading south.
• By 615 back to NW corner of GM's roof.
• By 628 crow cawing over Pond heading north. Then circled south to perch on a building west of Plaza Hotel. Seemingly no reaction from perched PF.
• At 653 back to NW corner of GM's roof.
• By 711 off NW corner to west edge of center section (roof level) then flew due south-east (Manhattan east).
• At 723 PF returned to NW corner of GM's roof. Arrived from the north. Perched facing south as at all other times on this spot.
• At 741 still on NW corner. 749 still perched. By 800 left perch without seeing it fly away.

Earliest Peregrine Falcon Nest in N.Y.C.?

Image above taken on 24-Apr-2006 — Peregrine Falcon perched near possible nest site on G.M. Building's north face.

The following article on Peregrine Falcons points out that the "first known nesting in New York City occurred in 1943 when a pair successfully hatched three young on a coping of the St. Regis Hotel".

Below is an image I took tonight of the site mentioned in the article. The St. Regis Hotel is on 5th Avenue and 55th St. on Manhattan.

Click image for view of the hotel.

‘Behavior of Peregrine Falcons in the New York City Region’ by Richard A. Herbert & Kathleen Green Skelton Herbert The Auk, volume 82 — Jan/1965, pp. 62-94

Peregrine Falcon Update: 24-April-2006

Central Park South: Peregrine Falcon

Taking pictures of distant hawks & falcons with the Lumix FZ30 is like throwing an eight million pixel net their way.

Each of the above images are 36 pixels wide by 47 pixels tall. They were ‘blown-up’ to 130 pixel wide to display them side-by-side. All images have a 35mm equivalent focal length of 420mm.

These were taken tonight while monitoring the activity around a possible nest site on the G.M. Building.

The left image is the furthest from the camera but appears larger than the other two. This is the female Peregrine Falcon.

The center & right images are of the same falcon in two different positions. Both appear similar in size & smaller than the one on the left. This is the male.

Tonight the Peregrines were seen separately between 5:55pm & 7:15pm. The female was perched on the north face of the G.M. as I entered the park. Before disappearing around 6:25pm she was perched just above the potential nest site.

After 6:25pm the male was seen flying from the ‘nest site’ to the fencing below the G.M.'s roof where he remained until 6:30pm when he flew to the north-west corner of the G.M.'s roof.

At 7:15pm the male flew east & then behind the G.M. & wasn't seen again.

Thanks Bruce for stopping by to observe the falcons.

Raptors At Sunset: 21-April-2006

The image above shows the adult male Red-tailed Hawk, from the Trump Parc nest, perching on the ‘X’ on the Essex House sign tonight (Fri., 21-Apr). When I arrived it was already perched. This was around 6:55pm.

Around 7:32pm I happened to be looking at the hawk in binoculars as it headed off to roost for the night. Sunset was at 7:41pm.

Before it disappeared from view it pulled off one of coolest moves I've seen in awhile. As it left its perch it dove, then rose a bit losing quite a bit of speed. I thought it was going to stall or veer off in another direction.

Instead, after it reached the top of the stall, it proceeded in the same direction and dove steeply. A few seconds into the drop it started to pull up again. This is when I lost it behind some trees.

This undulating flight is one of the more deliberate bits of ‘fun’ I've seen in quite some time. This was observed from Gapstow Bridge (south of Wollman Rink) while I was keeping one eye on a Peregrine Falcon and the other on this Red-tailed Hawk.

‘Birds of North America’ on-line refers to this as a ‘Sky-dance’ used in both agonistic behavior and courtship displays. Quite a versatile tool.

At Bruce Yolton's blog you can see a wonderful image of the male Red-tailed Hawk taken at around the same time. This hawk is referred to as ‘Junior’. The photo above was taken at 7:06pm. Check out the second image down in ‘Watching Paint Dry’.

The first raptor spotted from the park was this Peregrine Falcon perched on the G.M. Building's roof. It stood on the north-west corner of the building from at least 6:55pm.

There was little activity until the falcon flew to a fence on the north face below the building's roof. From here it took a flight close to a place where the pair might be nesting. I'm looking for a few more views to confirm this suspicion.

The reason I think this is a nest site is due to the falcon's disappearing to this spot only to emerge from the floor of this space. Very exciting to see after watching Peregrines in the area for 10 years and not knowing where the nest site might be.

From 7:48pm to 7:54pm the Peregrine perched on various fences below the G.M.'s roof. By 7:56pm I wasn't able to relocate it again. The end of Civil Twilight, when it becomes nearly impossible to spot the Peregrine's, was 8:10pm.

The images above were taken around 7:00pm.

American Kestrel: Upper East Side 15-Apr

This male American Kestrel was seen around 11:30am this morning hunting from an antennae near my apartment.

Kestrels have been seen in the area, including perched on this antennae, over the past few years.

Details:
• Exposure time: 1/400 sec
• Aperture: f/5.6
• Focal length (35mm equiv.): 420mm
• The photo was taken handheld with image stabilization

No additional text.

Central Park: Peregrine Falcons 13-Apr

ROBERT BATEMAN ‘Peregrine Falcon and White-Throated Swifts’ (paper, 26.25" x 20" — click image for catalog)

Thursday night was spent observing a pair of Peregrine Falcons that may actually be nesting this season. Their territory hugs the southeast corner of Central Park. The falcons are seen perching on buildings over Central Park South & along 5th Avenue. One of their favorite's is the General Motors Building. This cliff-like edifice has been the main focus for various Peregrine pairs that have been occupying this territory from as far back as 1996 when I first noticed them in the area.

In the past the main buildings used for perching were the Sherry-Netherland Hotel (S-N), General Motors Building (G.M.) & the Solow Building, AKA 9 West 57th St. (right photo):

Over the years I've been observing these Peregrines with the hope of discovering their nest site. This would be a new addition to the nesting Peregrine pairs on Manhattan. I've yet to see any juvenile falcons interacting with the resident adults. Maybe this season will be different.

Observation-wise, yesterday was one of the best days. The location of both falcons was noted from the time I arrived at 5:55pm EDT to shortly before I left at 7:20pm. This is unusual since the Peregrines can easily disappear from sight. Gapstow Bridge, just south of Wollman Skating Rink, is where I do most of my observing.

Male Peregrine Falcons are considerably smaller than females. This female is separable from the male not only by size. There are two features that can help ID her in case the male isn't nearby for size comparison. The female is missing a tail feather near the right edge of her tail. This is best seen when she's soaring. She is also missing a primary near the outer edge of her left wing.

I witnessed the following making the evening more successful than usual:

• both male and female were flying together
• for the whole session the location the pair was known
• I noted the time & direction where the male went to roost
• the pair was seen mating on the Solow Building
• a possible location for the nest was noted
• there was a Peregrine &mdash pigeon encounter
• a Kestrel passed over the flying pair heading north
• a male Kestrel was hunting near Gapstow Bridge

JOE BLY
Gapstow Bridge In The Snow - 1985
(click image to view catalog)

Nesting Location

While observing the Peregrines there was a spot that was revisited by the pair that may turn out to be a nest site. In the past I've noticed places where the Peregrines would disappear to thinking I'd found where they were nesting but juveniles (a key sign to a successful nesting) were never seen.

A favorite perching spot over the years has unfortunately been inadvertantly roped off by management of the Sherry-Netherland Hotel. Management is aware of the Peregrine's preference for these niches. Luckily the falcons are not at a loss for places to perch.

Pleiades Occultation: Celaeno Graze 1-Apr

During the recent passage of the Moon through the Pleiades a remarkable event was visible within the borders of N.Y.C. — something I hadn't seen before.

A group of us, Charlie, Kin, Peter & myself, headed down to a spot near the Staten Island Ferry terminal, on the Staten Island side, to attempt a grazing occultation of the star Celaeno (16 Tauri).

At magnitude 5.45 this Pleiad is not usually bright enough to be seen naked eye from within the city. With optics this star is rather bright.

Charlie Ridgway found a place for us to observe along a favorable portion of the graze path on Staten Island. All it took was a subway, a ferry trip and a short walk to the ‘Staten Island September 11 Memorial’.

Unfortunately partly cloudy skies ruled the night. We we able to observe a few of the occulations between cloud breaks but the main event was the graze of Celaeno around 7:15pm EST.

The wind was rather strong with gusts recorded at 33 mph in Central Park with sustained winds close to 15 mph. [weather history]

Software and the Celaeno Graze

There is an excellent piece of software for predicting lunar occultations including the viewing of these spectacular grazes. The name of the program is ‘Occult for Windows’.

The image below shows the contour of the Moon's limb at the time of the Celaeno graze for Staten Island. The time frame shown is roughly 6 minutes along the horizontal line starting on the right at 3m and continuing to the left at -3m.

Charlie found a place that was approximately 0.75 miles off the center-line shown by the yellow line on the chart. Looking along this line there are two gaps between the time of immersion and emergence. These represent two reappearances of Celaeno.

It's remarkable how well amateurs have coordinated the observation of grazes in order to produce these accurate profiles of the Moon's limb. It's impressive how accurate the software can place an observer along a path for viewing a grazing occultation.

For this graze, at our location, the distance between an occultation of Celaeno by a single mountain peak (at the northern limit) and a total occultation (at the southern limit) is nearly 0.65 miles or 3,400 feet. An even narrower path for the double reappearance we witnessed (excluding final emergence) is only two tenths of a mile wide!

Equipment Purchases

I made a few recent purchases to test my skills at taking photos through the Televue-76. Recording a video of the event was a missed opportunity. It will take a lot of practice getting it right. I'm looking forward to nights where the Moon is up with a few stars nearby to test exposures for still photos and short movies.

Here are some recent purchases:

• William Optic DCL-52 75mm focal length eyepiece
• 2 Televue extension tubes - one 2" and one 3"
• adapter ring to step down from the 55mm thread

Here are some pending purchases:

• shutter release for the FZ-30
• extra battery
• extra 2 gigabyte memory card

Conclusion

It was great that all four of us were able to witness this graze of Celaeno. The anticipation of not knowing when it would start or how many events would happen increased the excitement.

If there is ever an opportunity for you to view a grazing occultation of a bright star I highly recommend the experience.

Digital Camera in Bryant Park

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

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

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

Click on photos for an 800 pixel wide image.

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

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

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

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