Observing Log for Mike Durkin
9/17/2006 10:30AM-12:30PM
College Point, NY
Transparency: 10/10, Seeing 4/5
Coronado PST
It has been a very clear couple of days, so today I went to my parents place with the PST.
I started out with just visual observations. There were a couple of prominences, but not as many as
earlier this month. What I found more interesting was a dark filament across part of the disk,
maybe about 10-20% of the disk size. I was also able to see some granulation as I adjusted the tuning
ring. Observing done with 18mm(22x) and 7.4mm(54x) eyepieces.
After that I tried taking some pictures with my Nikon Coolpix 995. Unfortunately I forgot the remote
shutter control, so I had to do that manually. Focusing as also very hard to do through the LCD and I
had to use a jacket over my head to see the LCD better in the daylight. After taking a quick look at
the images, they came out a little better than I was expecting, although there is plenty of room for
improvment.
Here are some of them:
9/10/2006 7:00PM-9:00PM
Queens College, NY
Transparency: 2/10, Seeing ??/5
10x50 binoculars
They were having a presentation this night at Queens college and AOS was asked to bring some scopes for
people to look through. I brought along my 127mm Mak, however they sky was too cloudy, so I didn;t
bother setting it up. Instead I just brought out my 10x50 binoculars. During the night we
occasionally got glimpses of Altair and Vega, but nothing was ever clear of the clouds for long. On
the bright side, from the field we were on, there was a really nice view of Manhattan, including the
Empire State Building.
9/3/2006 11:00AM-12:30PM
College Point, NY
Transparency: 5/10, Seeing 3/5
Coronado PST
Well today I can finally see some blue in the sky, so I went over to my parents house to better test the PST. I also took over the mount for
my 127mm Mak, which turned out OK, although not quite ideal.
I started with the 17mm eyepiece(23x) and I was impressed. Once I was in focus I could easily see some prominences around the edges,
although there weren't quite as large as I was hoping. I could not immediatly see any details on the surface, howeer I was soon able to make
out that there was some details on the surface, almost speckled or mottled. I also used the 7.4mm eyepiece (54x), when helped me to examine
the prominences more.
Before I finished up, I went back to the 17mm to see if I could see any large scale features on the disk. The only think I notices was a
slightly brighter portion near the edge of the disk. I still need to get the hang of the tuning ring, although I felts that I could see
some detail on the disk almost no matter where the tuning ring was. Some prominences would only appear at certain setting of the tuning
ring. I can't wait to try taking some pix with the digital camera.
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