Observing Log for Mike Durkin 7/2/2005 roughly 8:00 PM-2:00 AM Robert Moses State Park Transparency: 9/10, seeing: 4/10 127mm Mak Turned out to be a very good night at RMSP. I got there a little early, just before sunset. After I had set up and other observers had shown up, people started looking for Venus and Mercury. Venus was pretty easy to see soon after sunset. Within about 15-30 minutes after I saw Venus I was able to see Mercury too. Eventually I was even able to see Mercury with the naked eye. The separation between the two planets was about 5 degrees. In the eyepiece Venus appeared as as nearly full phase, Mercury as approximately 50% illuminated. The seeing for each of thes planets wasn't too good since they were pretty low in the sky. I used both 30mm(51x) and 17mm(90x) eyepieces. I also looked for a little bit at Jupiter. Even though Jupiter was a bit higher in the sky than Venus and Mercury, the seeing did not seem particularly good, so I did not spend too much time on it. I also observed the following Messieer objects: M24: very large open cluster of stars. Well over a degree across. Observed with 30mm(51x) eyepiece. M18: A very small cluster of stars. Approximately 5-10' in size. Viewed with 30mm(51x) and 17mm(90x) eyepieces. Not very impressive. M17: Oblong shaped nebula, approximately 20' long. Sort of hooked shape at one end such that the shape reminded me of the constellation Leo. Observed with 30mm(51x) and 17mm(90x) eyepieces. M22: A very bright and large globular cluster, approximately 20' in size. Viewed with 30mm(51x) eyepiece. I also had a chance to take some piggyback astrophotos. I took pictures of parts of Scorpius, Sagittarius, and Aquila. You can see the pictures here. Other Log Entries <-- 2004 Jan  Feb  Mar   Apr   May  Jun  Jul   Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov   Dec   2006 -->