Observing Log for Mike Durkin 8/24/2003 about 9:00PM-10:00PM Oyster Bay, about 65 degrees Transparency: 8/10, seeing: 7/10 10x50 binoculars Went out to Dave and Alice's to try to catch Mars with the C8. Since it was still a bit early, and I was able to make out Sagittarius, I decided to try to see some Messier objects with my binoculars. First I tried to see the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and the Trifid Nebula (M20). I was able to see M8 in binoculars as a hazy elongated patch along a string of stars, however I was not able to see M20, even though it was in my field of view. I also was able to barely make out the cluster M7. It was very low on the horizon and the skyglow was significant. The cluster appeared fairly large and I was able to make out a couple dozen stars. 8/25/2003 about 11:00PM-12:30AM Oyster Bay, about 80 degrees Transparency: 5/10, seeing: 3/10 Once again tried to go out to Oyster Bay to catch Mars. Had better luck this time. Although the sky was relatively clear, it was very hazy and the seeing really sucked at first. It got a little bit better as the night went on. Observed Mars with different eyepieces, mostly the 7.4mm (267x) and 5mm(400x). The polar cap was very easy to see. The surface features were a little harder to make out and using the red or yellow filter helped a little. I'd estimate that imarkings were visible on about 40-50% of the surface, but I was unable to determine the exact area I was looking at. Other Log Entries <-- 2002 Jan  Feb   Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug   Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  2004 -->