Unable again to locate Comet SWAN at 7.30 pm, despite very clear sky and no moon. I suspect it's slipped beyond the range of the ETX-90 in a light polluted sky now. Compensating for this, however, I spotted an asteroid for the first time ever: 7 Iris. Very clear as a star-like point of light in Aries almost overhead, close to the Pleiades (which was nice through the 26mm lens, even though only part of it visible with 1 deg FOV). The attached sketch shows its position. With the 26mm lens, I guess the limiting magnitude was greater than 10 -- very good indeed for this spot.
Also took in Uranus and the Andromeda galaxy, the latter very distinct.
Could not find it despite moonless and reasonably clear sky (with very thin haze) just after twilight. With 15mm lens, SAO85955 (mag 7.48) and SAO85988 (mag 7.0) both bright in the FOV, and SAO85971 (mag 8.8) much dimmer but distinct. No sign of Comet SWAN, however, which should have been just outside the triangle of those three stars.
The transit of Mercury made it on to the front page of Guangzhou's Communist Party mouthpiece, the Guangzhou Daily. The Leonids before dawn on the 18th (local time) are also being touted as worth an early alarm.
本月，不要错过流星雨
http://www.sina.com.cn 2006年11月10日07:59 潇湘晨报
本报长沙讯洒满星光和弥漫着清风的夜晚，星星一颗一颗地坠落下来，在夜幕上划出一道长长的痕迹，蒲公英状的彗星仿佛清扫天幕的扫帚。如此美丽的流星雨和彗星，即便牺牲一点睡眠时间又何妨？
如果你之前没有看到“水星凌日”，别急，本月还有号称“流星雨之王”的狮子座流星雨让你大饱眼福。
记者从长沙天文台获悉，11月14日至21日期间，狮子座流星雨将处于活跃期。特别是18日凌晨4时50分左右该流星雨将达到极盛，届时，每小时将有100颗左右的流星划过夜空。想在流星下许愿的朋友可千万别错过了。
另外，本月星空还会有一颗新彗星Ｃ／2006Ｍ4出来凑热闹。这颗彗星是今年6月下旬发现的。
据专家介绍，11月中旬以前的晴夜，该彗星将会在日落后90分钟内出现，追星族可在西偏北的天空、仰角约为40度的武仙星座中寻找这颗新彗星。借助双筒望远镜，甚至可以发现非常明显的，呈蒲公英状的彗发。 记者荣建华
Object: NGC 1976 - M42 - Orion Nebula, Trapezium Cluster (center of M42)
Deepsky Catalog: NGC 2000
Log Type: (Show ALL)
Date Observed: 11/8/2006 11:37:53 PM
Time Observed: __:__UT
Object RA: 5h 35.27267m
Object Declination: -5d 23.41333'
Object Type: Nb
Constellation: Ori
Magnitude: 4
Size: 66
Observing Location: 39, 55 N, 116, 25 E
Object Rating: A+
Primary Equipment Used: 10x50 binoculars
Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Very Clear / Deepsky Perfectly Stable
Detailed Observing Notes:
Caught sight of this just before going to bed, noticing Orion's belt appearing low inthe south -- my first sighting of this asterism for what seems like months. Sweeping slightly down and to the right with the 10x50s, the nebula was strikingly visible.
Got up before 5 am to align ETX-90, but found it very difficult given that in order to catch the sun when dawn broke it had to be positioned next to a hedge with very limited view of any stars. Tried using automatic alignment and accepting its findings, then slewing to a star I could see from this position -- Merak -- and syncing on that. But slewing to another star it remained way out of line. Finally, with two named stars just about about in view (albeit quite close), Merak and Denebola, I tried the two star alignment which proved more effective. I was able to fine tune it on a dimmer star elsewhere, just as dawn twilight was began to set in. The whole process took well over an hour.
But it was worth it. I attached the solar filter and after dawn broke I trained the ETX-90 on the sun (with its ephemeris set as an asteroid in Autostar) so that as soon as it emerged from behind a building in the SSE its sliver was visible in the 26mm eyepiece with the tiny dot of mercury close to its leading edge (around 7:26 am). The attached sketch shows approximate positions ate 7:35, 7:45, 7:55 and 8:05 as it moved close to the sun's edge. For overall context the best view was with the 20mm eyepiece. As Mercury closed in on the point of egress, contact III, I used the 15mm lens which showed the planet's disc more clearly. Seeing was unsteady at the sun's limb, making it difficult to be exact about the timings of contacts III and IV. But my crude estimates were 8:08:37 and 8:10:12 (only a few seconds off the times given on NASA's website, I later discovered).
Far bigger on the lower trailing edge of the sun was a sunspot that didn't match anything on Spaceweather.com's image (which showed two regions, 821 and 822, which I couldn't see at all. And does it mean 921 and 922?). Maybe the sunspot was region 923, referred to on the NOAA forecast:
"New Region 923 (S05E71) produced multiple B-class flares in the last 24 hours. The largest of these was a B6 at 08/1233Z. The large leader spot in this new sunspot group is now visible."
I'm not sure I've ever seen such a big spot before (Class J it might be, according to the classification guide on Mike Weasner's website).
