Observing Log for Mike Durkin 9/24/2005 8:00PM-11:30PM Robert Moses State Park Transparency: 10/10, seeing: 4/10 127mm Mak I went down to the beach and was hoping to get some decent planetary imaging in, and maybe even a panorama digital image of the quarter moon after it came up. Venus: I started with Venus, but it was very low in the horizon. The couple of images I took of it is closer to a rainbow than a planet due to atmospheric effects. Despite that it was obvious to make out the phase of the planet. Mostly observed with my 7.4mm(208x) eyepiece. M8 (Lagoon Nebula): This appeared as two sections. One sections was a cluster of maybe about 30 stars. Immediatly next to it was a nebula, almost circular shaped. The size of everything was about 45' to 1 degree across and maybe about 30' in height. Best observed with the 30mm(51x) eyepiece. I did get a chance to observe this in some one's large dobsonian as well where the dark lane was easily visible. I could not say that I definitely say the same dark lane in my scope. A very nice nebula to observe. M20 (Trifid Nebula): Appreared as small nebulous patch around a star. I'd estimate about 5'-10' in size. Mostly observed with the 30mm(51x) eyepiece. I was not able to make out the dust that gives this nebula it's name. M21: Appeared as a very small cluster tight cluster of maybe 10-20 stars that I could make out. Approximatly 5'-10' in size. Uranus: I had a bit of a hard time finding it. I used the planetarium software on my Zaurus to find out where it was. It was pretty far from any bright stars and was in Aquarius, a constellation I am not familiar with. I had to star hop to find it and I did get diverted for a while befire I finally confirmed that I had found it. I was able to just barely make out the disk with the 7.4mm(208x) and the 5mm(308x) eyepieces. I did take a couple of pictures of Uranus, however the images did not come out too well. Focusing was also difficult in order to get Uranus in the LCD screen. I would take an 8 second exposure to see if the unfocused disk would show up. Once I find that, I could make small adjustments until I could actually see the planet in the LCD screen. Mars: Once Mars was about 20 degrees above the horizon, I started to observe it. The seeing was particularly bad, which may have been becasue I was looking over about 5 to 10 cars of other observers. I was able to see a polar cap and some dark markings on the disk. I mostly observed with my 7.4mm(208x) eyepiece. I also tried to take some pictures with my digital camera, hoever it was very windy and I doubt many of of the pictures are of much use. I was thinking of taking some pictures of the moon, however I would have had to wait at least another hour or two until it rose higheer in the sky and at that point most people were leaving, and the wind was still strong, so I packed it up for the night. 9/10/2005 8:00 PM-1:00 AM Custer Institute Transparency: 9/10, seeing: 7/10 127mm Mak The weather for the past week has been great and there was an AOS public observing session out at Custer, and I've been itching to do something astro related, so I decided to take the hike out to Custer. Unfortunatly, my back was bothering me a little bit, so I didn't bother setting up the camera with the zoom lens on the scope for piggyback shots. In hindsite, this may have been a good thing since I'm not really sure that the setup I have will support the extra weight of the zoom lens. I will need to test this out at home first. First I tried to find the Blinking Planetary in Cygnus thinking it might be a good target if I had to show something to the public. I was having a difficult time trying to match my star chars with what I saw in the scope so at this point I was getting a bit frustrated. Fortunatly there was another observer right next to me with a 16 inch truss Dobsonian, so I would occasionally look thru his scope when he fouind something interesting. Eventually I just decided to start on some easier targets and started obsering things: M31: Looked very nice in the finder scope and with the 30mm(51x) eyepiece. M27 (Dumbell Nebula): Observed in 30mm(51x) eyepiece. Looked very large for a planetary, approximatly 10' in size. There was an obvious rectangular shape to the nebula. M71: A globular cluster. It appeared very small, maybe 5-10' in size. It also did not appear to be a globular cluster to me. It seemed to be more of a tight open cluster. Observed at 30mm(51x) and 17mm(90x). M102: An edge on spiral galaxy. I had a hard time with this one. Using the star charts, I was able to find my way to where I thought the galaxy was. When I looked at the target, I saw a star and what might have been a bit of fuzz. I decided to take a break for a few minutes and I just looked at the sky for a bit naked eye. When I looked back in the eyepiece the galaxy was much more obvious to see compared to when I first started looking. I'd estimate it was about 5'x1'. No details, just an elongated fuzzy patch. M33: I've finally gotten to see this one directly. Appeared as a circular fuzzy patch, about 30-45' in diameter. Observed at 30mm(51x). Double cluster in Perseus: each about 20-20' in size and could just barely fit both of them in the eyepiece field of view. I finished of the night by looking at Mars. Initially is started out low in the horizon and I could not make out any detail on it. As it rose higher in the sky I was evenually able to make out some dark markings on the surface and I may have also been able to make out a little bit of a polar cap. There was a definite gibbous shape to it. Using a blue filter seemed to help bring out a little detail and reduce the atmospheric effects. I'd estimate it was about 80% or so illuminated and that it was 2-5' in size. Other Log Entries <-- 2004 Jan  Feb  Mar   Apr   May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep   Oct  Nov   Dec   2006 -->