nippy in the park (Toronto)

Crazy fool, Guy called a GO for this month's RASC Toronto Centre City Observing Session (COS)! I had mixed feelings...

The sky was spectacular during the day. Bright blue overhead, few clouds. Milky white on the horizons, but hey, pretty incredible for February. Even though the Environment Canada weather report I had read in the morning suggested snow in the evening, it sure wasn't looking like that during my bus ride home at 4:30 PM.

This month's COS was centred on Comet Lulin's closest approach. On the 24th, also the night of the New Moon, it would be closest to Earth. [edited]

The COS location "west" would be proximal! At long last, we'd have a chance to use High Park, the recently selected new location for the western COS. Ideal for me, for many of us. Still, being winter and all, having snow on the ground, and in the driveway, being cold, I would not have the "summer car" at my disposal. Asking a local RASC member for cargo help was not appropriate. Using my garden wagon just didn't see reasonable (it's even long to haul in the summer). So, if I was gonna do this, I would need to rent a car. Hopefully I could use an AutoShare car at the hourly rate vs. daily.

It was a "work night." I had a pile of things to do. Some things had slipped. I have to work out in the Etobicoke/Mississauga business area Renforth-loop south-of-the-airport dead zone tomorrow. Travel by transit takes a while so I have to get up extra early. Still, the COS gatherings don't tend to carry on too late. And this one might finish especially early...

But the temperature! It was chilly in the full sunlight. There was a nasty wind (curiously, from the south). I think I saw -16°C or thereabouts with the wind chill.

All the way home after work I seriously wondered if there was a temperature constraint used in calling the COS events. To be honest, I kinda wished it wasn't gonna happen.

As I warmed up and checked my email, I saw that Guy had decided to torture us!

(I don't envy him. It must be a challenge making these weather calls...)

Interestingly, he was going to join us at High Park (when normally he would go to Bayview Village Park). Being coordinator and all. He felt it appropriate to be on hand for the official, inaugural run of the new site. Well, at least I'd have someone to shiver in sympathy with. And grumble to.

Then, suddenly, I got a bad feeling... The popular target, the "big" target for the evening was going to be Comet Lulin. And, as I looked the Stellarium simulation around 8:00 PM, it confirmed my fears. We were screwed! Saturn and Lulin would be rising out of the murk due east. From our new digs at High Park, that would be right over the city downtown core and points beyond. All the smog and dirt and crap ordinarily makes for bad light pollution. Stupid search lights are that way. Worse, it would right above the ice rink, tennis courts, pool area—the area of the park lit with tall bright white unshielded lights. Crap! Oh well. At least we'd have Orion to look at. Venus briefly. And I could revisit λ (lambda) Orion. Do a proper sketch.

§

Booked the AutoShare car. Started packing up gear by the front door. Remembered the green laser pointers. Made a mental list of things to get from the garage. Grabbed a quick bite. Checked the power level of the portable battery pack. OK. Started putting on layers...

I remember being cold, on my back, in similar conditions. So I put on my wonderful beige wool sweater (version 2.0) underneath the RASC hoodie. We will pump you up! Packed the ski pants. Wondered where my black balaclava has gone...

I was ready to go with about 30 minutes to spare. Caught up on some emails. Went to the biffy. Prepared a note for a courier from Vancouver.

Phoned some people to invite them out. Ken called back and said this just confirmed his belief that I was crazy. "Hey," I rationalised, "it wasn't my decision! I'm not the organiser..."

§

I was at the park at about 7:40.

I almost missed the reflective RASC signs that Guy had brought. Very nice! They will be most helpful in the future for visitors, first timers, etc.

Guy was almost done his setup. How many telescopes does he have?!

We already had a visitor, a local, a member no less. I hadn't seen him before.

I set up quickly. Another good polar alignment. Found my missing glove (under the known one, in the same pocket, duh). Swung over to Venus briefly just before it disappeared behind the trees. Fantastic crescent shape! Large!

§

Lost another wing nut from the tripod tray... I don't know where that might have happened. My garage? My driveway? Trunk of the Toyota? High Park snow bank? I'll have to write that one off.

You know, this whole tripod triangle tray piece is weird. Almost 20 years now and I still don't have a good spot for transporting this thing...

§

Suddenly, I remembered my new gadgets. I affixed the Astro Gizmo Kick-Me-Nots to the inside of the tripod legs. Guy protested the LEDs were too bright. I positioned them as low as possible. The snow reflected a lot of the red light back up. Still, I think they work great. They will be very good at star parties with people unfamiliar with the spread of the tripod.

Tony was impressed with them, it seemed. Perhaps I'll do a brief presentation on them at a future RASC meeting...

§

I turned to Orion. First, at low power, I viewed Cr 69. I offered views of the loose cluster of stars. People seemed to like that. Guy updated his log book. I pointed out φ (phi) 1 and 2 at the bottom and λ (lambda) in the centre. It was possible to split lambda, when the telescope wasn't shaking, when the air was steady, and when one's eyes weren't watering.

8:32 PM, -9°C, 43% humidity. I zoomed into to 111x power. Once again, I was struck by the pattern of the stars, like a little arrow. This time, I took the time to sketch (much to everyone's amazement). With pencil and pink eraser. I noted some of the other field stars nearby. The collection of 6 stars, including the lambda double, from end to end, was about 1/5th of the field of view. So that would be about 4 to 5 arc-minutes...

Meanwhile, Guy put his 5" Orion Mak onto Castor [edit]. It was almost overhead. I read out the R.A. and Dec. numbers to him, guessing them from my Pocket Sky Atlas. It put him within 2 degrees. Then he fine-tuned, in a back-breaking orientation, to finally tag it.

I considered finding some interesting new doubles in the Orion, Lepus, Monoceros regions. But I couldn't find my listing of good winter doubles. I thought I had printed up the list from Sky and Telescope. I checked Astronomy Box alpha and The Magic Bag... Damn. I'll have to go through this paperwork later...

§

Tried to light my hand warmer. It would not go! Damn it. Must remember to start this process earlier, at home, with everything warm.

Tried to use the new 200 mW green laser. It did not like the cold. Despite being in my jeans pocket, it was slow to brighten... Fluctuated!

Guy's looked like it had Vaseline on the lens!

§

Guy was on Saturn shortly after it cleared the trees. I apologised for not bringing a chart of the moons. Still, I offered to look 'em up on my palmtop. When Guy said he thought he could see Titan, I pulled out the EPOC machine and launched Procyon. As Ken held my red flashlight, I zoomed in on the Saturn image. I asked Guy to describe what he was seeing. I checked that he had a mirror-reversed orientation. Confirmed: Titan was a little above the ring plane, about 1.5 ring radii away from the planet, on the telescope field's right side of the planet.

Later, when I looked through my 'scope, at low power, Titan looked like it had moved in closer to the planet.

9:32 PM, -10.4°C, 54%, 1028 mbar. Saturn and the thin rings were creamy white. I could see a few moons nearby. I didn't make detailed notes nor a sketch but I think I recall 2 to the left and a couple of far off points to the right.

I thought I saw some banding on the planet, brighter near the rings?

Tony had scooped up some visitors as he entered the park. They had heard about Comet Lulin and thought they'd try to spot it. He dragged them over to where we were set up. We showed the 3 visitors Saturn and Orion's M42. I gave them each a new RASC planisphere.

§

It was getting on, the civilians were all gone, we were starting to get cold.

As we saw that Saturn was higher, it's brightness improved, we all began in earnest to look for Lulin. I showed the printout from Stellarium to Guy. I reminded everyone that the comet should have been within 2 to 3 degrees of Saturn. Tony spotted it in his 10x50 binoculars. But after many attempts, both Tony and I could not tag it in my telescope. Guy found it in his and offered the eyepiece. Very, very faint.

I reminded people that we were really looking too soon. We need to wait 2 or 3 more hours...

§

Tony helped me pack up before heading home. I left the park at 10:30.

Guy and I briefly met at the Timothy's after I dropped off the rental.

We thought it a good night. Amazingly good turnout given the conditions.

And High Park will be a good spot, once the lights are dealt with.

No one kicked my tripod.