Observing Log for Mike Durkin5/30/2004 about 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM RMSP, about 60 degrees Transparency: 3/10, Seeing: 4/10 127mm Mak, plus others Started out thinking it would be a good day to go to Custer since it started so clear. However, when I stopped in Riverhead to get some gas, I noticed quite a few clouds in the West, so I decided to skip Custer, and go to RMSP instead, this way if the sky was completely clouded over, I could get home quicker. So I got to RMSP, and Mike Kozma was there along with a couple of who were trying out a small Mak. The sky was still very cloudy, but we could see Jupter and the moon, which I observed with my scope at 17mm(90x). The moon was about 70% illuminated. I tried my 7.4mm eyepiece, but the image was very soft, so I didn't use it and cleaned when I got home. I also observed Saturn, which appeared very small and dim compared to a few months ago. The color seemed very brownish or tan. Later on during the night we observed Io as it moved bheind the disk of Jupiter. Some one mentioned that the International Space Station (ISS) was going to be visible, and it was. It came out of the northwest and travelled to the southeast. At it's brightest it appeared as bright as Jupiter, and about 30 degrees over the horizon in the southeast it disappeared quite suddenly as it passed into the earth's shadow. Later on Linda Prince showed up and we observed the follwoing: M13: observed in Mike's 10 inch dobsonian. Easily able to resolve stars. M57 or Ring Nebula: Observed in Mike's 10 inch Dob and my 127mm Mak with a 30mm eyepiece(51x). Appeared as a faint, small green/grey disk Comet NEAT: saw in Mike's 10 inch Dob. Apeeared as a small circular fuzzy disk, with a hint of a fan shaped tail. I was not able to find in my scope of binuculars because a lot of times I could not tell if I was looking at the comet of clouds. I also think that I may have seen either M81 or M82, but the clouds were making it very frustrating and I was not able to confirm. <-- 2003 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 --> |