Observing session time frame: 3/04/2006 7:00PM LT to 03/04/2006 9:00PM Local time - same as - 03/05/2006 2:00UTC to 03/05/2006 4:00UTC - subject as always to cloudy weather in March: Total Days 31 Mean Clear Days 7 Mean Partly Cldy Days 8 Mean Cldy Days 16 This will be a Moon and bright star night because the Moon is up; it will not be a DSO night. Although the focus of the session is training on physical use of the dome and scope during cold weather, a smorgasbord list of potential pleasure targets, from which a couple can be selected for the March 4 Brandt session include the following. Az and Altitude coordinates for stellar objects listed below are for 3/04/2006 7:00PM. Lunar targets are for the terminator position at 40.3 East longitude at 8:00pm local time. Calculated characteristics for the Brandt scope are listed in Part II. - Enjoy Canopus56(Kurt) I. Smorgasboard of targets I(A). Lunar At 3:00 UTC (8:00pm local time), Rukl's lunar terminator estimator tables (p.218-219 Rukl's Atlas of the Moon) puts the lunar terminator at 40.3 East lunar longitude. The favorable libration on March 4 per the RASC Handbook is at the equator on the east limb. Potential showcase objects for the evening are: Crater Hercules Crater Gutenberg Montes Pyrenaues Crater Janessen - and possibly - Rupes Cauchy North to South, some interesting features at 8:00pm might be: 1) 80 N region - Crater deSitter (65km) 80.1 N, 39.6 E, Rukl Map 5 2) 80 N region - Crater Billard (90km flooded creater) 74.6 N, 37.5 E, Rukl Map 5 3) 50 N region - Mare Firgoris 52 N, 40 E (surface albedio effects), Rukl Map 6 4) 50 N region - Crater Hercules (69 km dark material on floor) 46.7 N, 39.6 E, Rukl Map 14 5) 40 N region - Crater Maury (17.6 km) 37.1 N, 39.6 E, Rukl Map 15 6) 20 N region - Crater Fray (20 km, corroded, flooded crater) 16.6 N, 40.2 E, Rukl Map 25 7) 10 N region - Rima Cauchy (240 km - east 20km only visible) 9 N, 37 E, Rukl Map 36-37 8) 10 N region - Rupes Cauchy (120km fault similar to the Rupes Recta - the Straight Wall - east 20km only visible), Rukl Map 36-37 9) 10 S region - Crater Gutenberg (74km - complex crater floor) 8.6 S, 41.2 E, Rukl Map 48-47 10) 20 S region - Crater Bohnengerger (33km) 16.2 S, 40 E, Rukl Map 58-59 11) 20 S region - Montes Pyrenaues (250km mountain range) 14 S 41 E, Rukl Map 58-59 12) 40 S region - Craters Matius (88km), Fabricus (78km) and Janessen (190km - old degraded crater with wide rilles and ridges), approx. 42.9 S, 42 E, Rukl Map 68 13) 60 S region - Crater Vlacq (89km), Rukl Map 75 14) 60 S region - Crater Nearoh (76km) 58.5 S, 39.1 E, Rukl Map 75 15) 80 S region - Crater Boaguslausky (97 km) 72.9 S, 43.2 E, Rukl Map 74 16) 80 S region - Crater Scott (108km) 81.9 S, 45.3 E, Rukl Map 74 (P.S. Some of the crater names may be misspelled. I typed them up quickly and from handwritten notes.) I(C). Bright, Colorful Multiple Stars in the zenith hole from the Belmont Colorful Double List, by Azimuth Id Con J2000 AzAlt SpecPri V V2 Sep Notes 1) psi05 Aur Aur J064643.20+433448.0 Az072.75 Alt+74.32 G0V 5.4 8.4 36.2 Belmont note: yellow/blue; CCDM06467+4335, R Aur 2) pi. Gem Gem J074731.20+332512.0 Az092.73 Alt+60.53 M0III 5.15 5.3 11.4 Belmont note: orange/bluish triple with 3rd at 92"; CCDM07475+3325 3) HD046296 Aur J063419.20+380448.0 Az095.32 Alt+76.04 K0 6.6 10 43.2 Belmont note: yellow/blue/blue quad; CCDM06343+3805, STF 1103 4) HD035295 Aur J052512.00+345136.0 Az176.15 Alt+84.08 K1pvar+ 6.5 8.6 31.2 Belmont note: yellowish/orange; CCDM05252+3451, HJ 2268 5) HD033203 Aur J051019.20+371800.0 Az216.98 Alt+85.71 B2II 6.8 7.1 1.6 Mullaney: gold & bluish-red; CCDM05103+3719, STF0644 6) 56 Per Per J042438.40+335736.0 Az244.32 Alt+76.53 F4V 5.9 8.7 4.5 Belmont note: gold/yellow; CCDM04246+3358 I(C) Position of Planets above horizon at 2:00 UTC, 7:00pm (from Your Sky) by Azimuth Body RA_Dec Az_Alt Saturn 8h 31m 11s +19° 39.7' / 103.734 44.930 Mars 4h 22m 40s +23° 21.9' / 220.527 68.236 Moon 3h 17m 50s +22° 19.1' / 244.382 57.662 Mercury 23h 42m 2s +1° 39.6' / 268.217 4.580 Setting I(D). Separation resolution testing stars by Azimuth Argyle has published a set of matched resolution test stars. Here are some stars spread across the scope's Dawes and Rayleigh limits. None are well-placed near the zenith hole: Id Con J2000 AzAlt SpecPri V V2 Sep PA PA Epoch Other names 1) HD050700 Mon J065408.52-055108.6 Az150.40 Alt+38.93 A6Vn 6.39 6.6 1.3 170 2002 CCDM06541-0551, WDS06541-0551, STF 987, HIP033154 2) HD015328 Cet J022759.88+015739.2 Az237.25 Alt+34.64 K0III 6.45 6.7 0.52 29 2002 CCDM02280+0158, WDS02280+0158, KUI 8, HIP011474 3) HD006886 Psc J010939.12+234739.8 Az272.66 Alt+35.00 F0 6.65 6.8 0.62 290 2002 CCDM01097+2348, WDS01096+2348, BU 303, HIP005444 4) HD208132J Cep J215137.32+654510.1 Az334.55 Alt+28.31 A1m 6.37 6.7 1.4 145 2002 CCDM21516+6545, WDS21516+6545, STF2843, HIP107893 Argyle, R. (ed). 2004. Tables 2.1-2.7, Test Stars for Binocular through 600mm Telescopes. In Observing and Measuring Visual Double Stars. Springer. ISBN 1-85233-558-0 http://www.springer.com/ II. Some Brandt telescope characteristics: II(A). Resolution criteria: Airy disk radius 0.692 arcsecs Dawes limit 0.579 arcsecs Rayleigh limit 0.692 arcsecs Airy disk diameter 1.384 arcsecs Airy disk diameter linear size 22.546 microns Linear resolving power - theoretical 108 line pairs/mm Linear resolving power - practical film 60 line pairs/mm FWHM angular size 0.579 arcsecs FWHM linear size 9.425 microns II(B). Eyepiece fl/TFOV data at sky brightness ZLM 5.5 mags, 20.0 MPSAS: Note: These limiting magnitudes will not apply to near quarter-phase Moonlight sky on March 4. The telescopic limiting magnitude may be substantially lower due to Moon light. TFOV estimates and useful magnifications apply. Eyepiece focal length 9 mm Eyepiece AFOV 52 degrees Telescopic magnification 373.3 power Magnification per inch: 46.7 useful for: Double stars Telescope TFOV 0.1 degrees Telescope TFOV 8 arcmins Telescope TFOV 501 arcsecs Limiting telescopic magnitude - stellar, color index 0: 14.4 mags Eyepiece focal length 15 mm Eyepiece AFOV 52 degrees Telescopic magnification 224.0 power Magnification per inch: 28 useful for: Specific planetary lunar detail Telescope TFOV 0.2 degrees Telescope TFOV 14 arcmins Telescope TFOV 836 arcsecs Limiting telescopic magnitude - stellar, color index 0: 14.4 mags Eyepiece focal length 20 mm Eyepiece AFOV 52 degrees Magnification per inch: 20.6 useful for: Planetary and lunar details Telescopic magnification 168.0 power Telescope TFOV 0.3 degrees Telescope TFOV 19 arcmins Telescope TFOV 1114 arcsecs Limiting telescopic magnitude - stellar, color index 0: 14.2 mags Eyepiece focal length 52 mm Eyepiece AFOV 48 degrees Telescopic magnification 64.6 power Magnification per inch: 8 useful for: Small clusters and galaxies Telescope TFOV 0.7 degrees Telescope TFOV 45 arcmins Telescope TFOV 2675 arcsecs Limiting telescopic magnitude - stellar, color index 0: 13.3 mags III. Telescopic limiting magnitude test areas There are no good pre-mapped Clark TLM fields in bright open clusters near the zenith on March 4. Possible bright but lower altitude TLM fields pre-mapped by Clark and in the RASC 2006 Handbook are: Id Con J2000 Alt-Az coord Notes M67 Cnc J085006.00-115300.0 Az107.35Alt+36.42 Northwest quadrant of M67; mag range: 10.6-21.3; In the RASC 2006 Handbook NGC225 Cas J004342.00+614648.0 Az321.64Alt+44.30 Clark note: 20 stars mag 9+ Transiting off-zenith Landolt standard star fields are: Area Con J2000 Alt-Az coord Notes SA97 Ori J055725.92+000140.8 Az167.04Alt+48.52 Centered on 60 Ori, HD040210, mag range 7-14, N=37 stars SA98 Mon J065209.60-001742.0 Az148.13Alt+44.24 Centered on HD050209, mag range 8-13, N=30 with 46 supps to mag 18 Clark, R.N., 1990. Star Clusters for Finding Your Limiting Magnitude. Appendix C in Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky, Cambridge University Press and Sky Publishing http://www.clarkvision.com/visastro/ RASC. 2006. RASC Observer's Handbook. Annual. http://www.rasc.ca/publications.htm Landolt1973: Landolt, A. 1973. UBV photoelectric sequences in the celestial equator selected areas 92-115. 1973AJ.....78..959L; CDS Cat. VI/19 1996yCat.6019....0L http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1973AJ.....78..959L Landolt1992: Landolt, A. Jul. 1992. UBVRI photometric standard stars in the magnitude range 11.5-16.0 around the celestial equator. 1992AJ....104..340L ; CDS Cat. II/183A/ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1992AJ....104..340L __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com