Observing Log for Mike Durkin
9/20/2007 8:30PM-11:00PM
Pownal, ME
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing: 3/5
Meade LX200 12" Telescope
On vacation in Portland Maine, and went to visit Blueberry Pond Observatory nearby. The observatory is basically the third floor of a house, where the 12 inch scope was and a clamshell dome on top of that.
Started out looking at the Moon and Jupiter. Jupiter was pretty low to the horizin at that point, and I was not able to make out much detail on the disk at all.
Also looked at Uranus, Neptune, M31, M32, M110, M13, M57, and the Double cluster in Perseus.
After that Thurson showed me a little bit of what he does when taking CCD images, in particular focusing. He primarily uses a Harman mask with his computer and a high precision digital focuser. At one point I asked him to try to grab a quick image of M51, however it was already behind some trees, and we were only able to see the two cores.
After that we went to the floor below and I asked Thurston to take an image of the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus.
9/16/2007 about 3:00 PM
Oyster Bay, NY
Transparency: 6/10, Seeing: 4/5
about 60-70 degrees
Coronado PST
Went out to Oyster Bay with my Coronado PST and a camera tripod. Visually with my 17mm eyepiece(24x), there were many prominences alond the edge of the disk. I was also able to see some surface feature on the disk as well.
I set up my webcam to try to see if I could get some images. My only picture is here:
I think in general I am better off using my Nikon 995 and Scopetronix eyepiece and a mount that tracks.
9/8/2007 3:00PM-10:00PM
Custer Institute
Transparency: 6/10, Seeing: ??/5
about 70 degrees
Coronado PST
First AOS meeting after the summer, which was held at Custer. Starting next month, the meeting should be held at Adelphi. After the meeting was a BBQ, and then an observing session with AOS, Custer and ASLI members.
So after seeing a couple of people setting up moster 30 inch Dobsonians, I was lazy and decided not to set up my 8 inch SCT, however I did set up my Coronado PST. I did see one long filament on the bottom of the disk that ran to the edge of the disk and a prominence. There were also a couple of other prominences as well.
After sunset I mostly hung out in the AOS observatory dome. For most of the night Bill had the scope focused on M22. I did go look through one of the large Dobsonians for a bit, which was focued on the Ring Nebula. I was hoping to see some color in the nebula, but it was still mostly green.
The sky was also rather hazy, and I left at around 10:30PM to go home.
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