Observing Log for Mike Durkin8/6/2005 roughly 8:00 PM-12:00 AM Custer Institute Transparency: 6/10, seeing: 5/10 127mm Mak This was my first trip out to Custer since the first light party of the AOS observatory. This was a scheduled AOS observing session for the club observatory. I got out there a little before sunset. One of the AOS members was there and he pointed the scope at Jupiter as it was setting. It looked pretty good although the seeing was pretty bad since it was low in the sky. I was able to see all 4 moons. After that I set up my own scope and would occasionally switch between mine and a couple other AOS member who brought their own, biggert scopes. I had some trouble with the motors on my scope, turns out I had to tighten one of the screws on it. I spent a lot of time trying to find the double-double in Lyra. Moments like that make me miss having the Zaurus. Anyway after I bit I did find the double-double. I was definitly able to resolve one of them. I may have resolved the second double, however I'm not sure if the colimation on my scope was having an effect. One of these days I would like to get a fellow AOS member to check it for me. I also just happened to pass over Brocchi's Cluster, or the Coathanger. After that I did observer M57, the Ring Nebula, also in Lyra. Then after that, my scope fogged up, so that was it for my scope. Before I left for the night, one of the other telescopes had Mars as it was rising. It just appeared as an orange-red featureless disk, with red and blue edges.
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