Observing Log for Mike Durkin 7/17/2003 about 9:30PM-12:30AM Oyster Bay, about 65 degrees Transparency: 9/10, seeing: 7/10 Celestron Ultima C8 PEC First I tried taking a few piggyback with tracking pictures of Lyra, Cygnus, and Casseopeia. Exposure time varied from 1 minute to 5 minutes. Waiting to develop the film to see how good the pictures are. NGC 6826 or the Blinking Planetary: Initially this appeared as a star with slight fuzz surrounding it. I then tried the trick of making it "blink" by looking at it and then slightly away from it to see the nebula. Rather than blinking though, I would describe more like flaring. When indirectly observing, the fuzz extends a little, but when I look directly at it, the central portion seems to drown out the surrounding nebula. M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula: Easier to find with the larger scope. I was also able to make out some of the shape of the nebula. It appeared a little more rectangular shapped rather than a dumbbell. M71: Almost seemed like a "mini galaxy". Able to resolve about a couple dozen stars in this cluster. Not spherical like a regular globular cluster, but oval or elongated shape. 7/12/2003 about 9:00PM-11:30PM Oyster Bay, about 65 degrees Transparency: 5/10, seeing: 8/10 127mm Mak First light for the new StarMax 127 Mak I got from Orion Telesccopes. Setting up was a bit of a pain, praticularly the tripod/mount. I'm hoping that I can keep some of the pieces permanantly attached to make things easier. Well the weather could have been a little better for tonight. It started out really clear in the early evening, but by the time I started observing, it was partially cloudy. Later on, the full moon came from behind the trees as well. So far though I like the new telescope, except for the time to set up and break down. M29: Observed about 10 stars, in an hourglass pattern, with a 25mm eyepiece (62x). M39: Observed about 20-30 stars, in a roughly triangular shaped pattern with a 25mm eyepiece (62x). M57: Very faint. I'm a bit surprised at how faint it looked compared to the last time I saw it in the 8" scope. Tried 30mm (51x), 25mm (62x), and 17mm (91x). M27: Also very faint. Mainly observed with 17mm(91x). When using the deep sky filter, I could see the nebula a little better. Despite the nickname "Dumbell Nebula", it appeared mostly as a dim oval, without any dumbell or hourglass shape. 7/4/2003 about 11:30PM-12:00AM Oyster Bay, about 80 degrees Transparency: 5/10, seeing: 7/10 10x50 binoculars A very hazy evening. I wasn't able to make out any of the stars in Lyra except Vega. I tried looking for the North American Nebula in Cygnus, but I didn't see it. I wasn't really expecting to with the bad conditions. I was able to find M39 pretty easily. I was able to see a couple of star in the cluster plus some slight haze. After trying and failing to see M29, I packed it in for the night. 7/1/2003 about 9:30PM-11:30PM Oyster Bay, about 60 degrees Transparency: 8/10, seeing: 6/10 Ultima C8 Kind of bright out, however I haven't had a clear night in a while, so headed out to Oyster Bay for observing. M4: First observed around 9:50PM, then again around 10:25. It was a bit low on the horizon and was a little difficult to make out the first time. I wasn't able to make out individual stars until later. It seemed almost like an open cluster with a horizontal line of stars. M19: Easier to see than M4, but the sky still seemed too bright to get a good view. Appeared as a roundish hazy patch. Unable to resolve stars. M10: Very nice, able to view using the 7.4mm eyepiece (270x) where it filled the field of view. Also able to resolve a lot of stars. M12: Not as good as M10, but still OK. Smaller than M10. While observing a plane just happened to cross right in front of the cluster, which was interesting. M57: The Ring Nebula, was obvious to see at low power. I tried going all the way to 5mm(400x), however it was best seen at 7.4mm(270x) or 17mm(118x). It was hard to focus on the nebula, and I couldn't define edges clearly within the nebula. I tried using the nebula filter and it does make it stand out more against the background. Even though it seemed fairly bright, I couldn't make out any color. The ring shape was obvious, and slightly oval. Double-Double in Lyra: I was able to split the double-double using a 7.4mm(270x). I wasn't quote able to split with the 17mm(118x). Other Log Entries <-- 2002 Jan  Feb   Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul   Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  2004 -->