Observing Log for Mike Durkin 9/21/2002 10:00 PM-12:00 AM Oyster Bay 4.5" Newtonian Even though it was partly cloudy, I wanted to try taking a few astrophotos of the moon with the digital camera I have, a Nikon Coolpix 995. For today, the moon was very close to full. After I got the scope set up and attached all the adapter, I found out that using the eyepiece adapter brought the eyepiece too far out to bring into focus. After reading through a couple of mailing lists, it looks as though I will need to replace the screws that hold the primary mirror with longer ones so I can adjust the focal point. I did manage to take these pictures, only the first one is any use. Were done using afocal withough any adapter to hold the camer in place. I just aimed the camera at the eyepiece and clicked. All pictures were done using a 17mm eyepice. Also did notice that I could bring the image into focus using a barlow lens, but that was too much magnification. 9/7/2002 8:00 PM -12:30 AM RMSP 4.5" Newtonian The high point of the night, we were able to see the Northern lights to the NE and the north around 9 PM or so. Nice shades of red, and some poeple saw green. Something I thought I would never see, especially living in NYC. Tried a couple of 8" exposure, but didn't really do it right. Should really only try from a house first instead of beach. Tried to find Uranus again. Again no luck. I'm also pretty sure that at first I was looking in the wrong part of the sky for it. The stars of Capricornus were very dim from RMSP. Also tried to find M30 in Capricornus, no luck. M31: saw it again, looked nice. Also saw M32, the campanion to M31. Cassiopeia: defintely made out a couple of clusters, but didn't positively identify which ones, but probably M103 and NGC 663. tried to find M52, but wasn't able to. Saw double cluster in Perseus and M34 cluster. Saw a globular cluster in Sagitarius, probably M28. Looked for pinwheel galaxy, but couldn't see, seems too difficult to find. Saw NGC 752 star cluster, between Triangulim and Andromeda. Saw the Pleiades M45. It was rising in the east, and looked a bit fuzzy and I didn't know what it was. Easily recognized after I saw in the scope. Looked at M57, the Ring Nebula. Almost missed it since at low power it looked like a star. Also tried to find globular cluster M56 near Lyra, couldn't find it. Had to leave at 12:30. I was getting a headace, and I was beginning to think that it was affecting my sight. 9/6/2002 10PM-12:30 AM Rockville Center 10x50 binoculars Saw M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) again, but seemed a little dimmer than last time. Also saw NGC 752 - star cluster in Andromeda. Think I was about 10-20 members, probably need a scope to see better. Tried to find Pinwheel galaxy (M33), in Triangulum, but no luck. The book I had suggests that I need dark skies with binoculars in order to see. May have also seen M103, and some other clusters in Cassiopeia. Need to use a telescope to confirm. Also verified that I saw the double cluster in Perseus the other night, although it seems to be only 1 cluster in binoculars. Finished up the night by finding M34 in Perseus. 9/4/2002 10PM-12AM Oyster Bay 10x50 binoculars first light for 10x50 binocs Started out at a school nearby. Great spot for observing, however probably not good as a permanant spot. From there saw M31, Andromeda galaxy. Also tried to find Uranus and Neptune, but couldn't make out Capricornus, so no luck there. Also tried to find any deep sky objects in Cygnus, but couldn't. It was very difficult since it was striaght overhead. Although I did see Albireo, the color contrast in binoculars wasn't that impressive. Went back to the house in Oyster Bay, and checked out M31 again. Also though I saw a cluster (NGC 663 or M103) in Cassiopeia, however was probably the double cluster in Perseus(NCG 869 and 884). Hopefully the weather will continue into the weekend and I will try these again. 9/3/2002 10PM College Point Too cloudy and with the US open going on, the sky was pretty washed out. on the plus side I tried out using the cart to carry my scope and that seemed to work ok. All I saw was probably vega and deneb, plus a couple of other stars naked eye so I didn't even bother to set up the scope.