Observing Log for Mike Durkin


2/25/2006 9:00PM-12:00AM
Southold, NY, about 20-25 degrees
Transparency: 8/10, seeing: 5/10
14 inch SCT

Custer Institute was having a talk about astrophotography, so I decided to go out, hear the talk, and maybe take some slide pictures afterwards.
The talk was decent, but we had to wait an hour after the talk until the clouds cleared away. After that I decided against using my own scope. It was very cold and windy, do I decided to just hang with some of the other AOS member using the club scope.

During the night we saw:
M42/43: clearly able to see the dark cloud separating the two.
M51: we were able to make out some of the disk of the spiral galaxy, and maybe some of the structure. Under better sky conditions we probably would have.
Owl Nebula: The nebula was easy to see, but again details were hard to come by.
M1 (Crab Nebula): asppeared as a small grey oval. No dinstinct features visible.

At about midnight we packed it in.


2/19/2006 8:00PM-12:00AM
Oyster Bay, NY, about 20 degrees
Transparency: 9/10, seeing: 5/10
Celestron Ultima 8 PEC

The first chance for observing in over 3 months.
First tried some piggyback shots of Orion Nebula, Horsehead Nebula, Chrstmas Tree cluster, and a shot of Saturn with the Beehive Cluster.
A shot of the Orion Nebula.
A modified image of the previous photo. I removed the color channels except Cyan to bring out a little more of the nebula.


A shot of Orion's Sword and Belt. You can see the Orion Nebula, the Flame Nebula, and the Horsehead Nebula. If you look closely, you may also see part of Bernard's Loop.
A modified version of the pervious image. For this image I removed the color channels and only left cyan in order to try to make the nebulae easier to see.


A color image ot the area by the Rosette Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster.
A modified version of the previous image where I removed the color channels except for cyan in order to tho make the nebulae easier to see.
The Christmas Tree Cluster. I was hoping to catch some of the Cone Nebula, but my exposure was too short.


After that used my digital camera on Saturn, here are a couple of the pix.
Stacked images of Saturn.
An image of Saturn overexposed to bring out some of it's moons.


After that I did some visual observing of Saturn and a M67.
Saturn: Best seen at 7.4mm(270x). Clearly saw one belt and the Cassini division. I'm not sure if I saw the C ring, but it could have just been glare from the planet itself. I was also able to make out a few moons.
M67: Observed at 30mm(67x) and 17mm(117x), sest seen with the 17mm eyepiece. Roughly oval shaped, 30' x 20'. Clearly saw about 20 stars plus maybe 30+ fainter stars as a background fuzz. Seemed very rich.


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