Observing Log for Mike Durkin 6/1/2003 about 10:00-11:00 PM Oyster Bay, about 50 degrees Transparency: 8/10, seeing: 6/10 10x50 binoculars Day started out cloudy, but cleared up by evening. Right before I left Dave and Alice's, I decided to try to find M13 in Hercules with binoculars. I didn't bring my telescope out for that weekend. M13: no real detail, mainly appeased as a fuzzy star. M92: Was able to pinpoint using sky chart software. Could barely make out that is was a little fuzzy, otherwise I would have considered this just a normal star. 6/2/2003 8:30-10:30 PM Robert Moses State Park, about 50 degrees Transparency: 7/10, seeing: 6/10 4.5" Newtonian A lot of members from AOS said they were going to try to make it here tonight, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Although the sky seemed clear, it was very hazy. I brought my camera and took a picture of the sun as it was setting, will see how it comes out. There was also a thin crescent moon out, so I also decided to look at that. There was one large maria visible, which I think was Mare Crisium. Jupiter was also visible, and I took a quick look at it. All 4 moons were easily visible. M13: large globular cluster, but still seemed a bit dim, either because the sky wasn't that dark, or I am spoiled by the 8". Observed at 17mm(53x) and 7.4mm(122x). I wasn't able to resolve stars. After M13, I sort of gave up on my scope. It had a couple of problems. First, the power supply case broke, although I was able to get around it by taping it. I also noticed the motor was having issues again. When I took a look at motor with the problem, I noticed a crack in the frame. Additionally going back to this scope after the 8", was more physically demanding. I think I may need to get rid of this scope and get a new one. I did manage to look through some other scopes while I was there. There were a couple of large Dobsonians on M13. There was one large one there, I'd say about 18", that was easily able to resolve the stars. Clouds came in around 10:30, so I left at 11:00 PM. Other Log Entries <-- 2002 Jan  Feb   Mar  Apr  May  Jun   Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  2004 -->