Observing Log for Mike Durkin
5/20/2010 8:30PM-2:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: about 60-70 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, Stellarvue 70mm, Hutech Modified Canon Rebel XT, Phillips Toucam Pro
Stared with Venus while it was still a little light out. It was very low in the sky, so the seeing wasn't
too good. I could tell that the disk was about 60% illuminated. Observed with my 8 inch SCT and 7.4mm
eyepiece(270x).
After that I observed Saturn. First time I observed it with the disk being this close to edge-on. I
also took some webcam images
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Telescope: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC Camera: Philips ToUcam Pro with a 2x barlow lens Exposure: about 300-400 frames, each 1/25 of a second. Processed using Registax and then resized using Photoshop. |
I noticed that some of the Virgo galaxies were close to Saturn so I started going down a chain of galaxies.
First M61: It was barely visible and it took at least 10-15 minutes before I was sure that I saw something there. In my 17mm eyepiece(118x), it was a faint smudge that covered about 4-5 arc minutes. I could not see any distinct shape or edges, but it may have been slight elongated going diagonal compared to north-south.
Next M49, this was easier to see. It appears like a small dim globular cluster with a faint star right next to it. Best seen at 17mm(118x). Appeared roughly 3-4 arc minutes and nearly circular.
M60: also faint, observed with 17mm(118x). Appeared like an oblong globular cluster, roughly 1x3 arcminutes aligned east-west.
M59: Observed with 17mm(118x). Also faint and slightly oblong. Estimated about 1x3 arcminutes aligned north-south.
I then started observing some variable stars. I took measurements of Z UMa and XY Lyra. I looked for R CrB, but as expected it is not visible in an 8 inch scope since it is "quiet" now. I tried a couple of other stars, but I had trouble finding them. Possible because they were towards the south and light pollution or the atmosphere were giving me problems.
And as I packed up for the night, I tried a couple of images of the moon, prime focus, but I wasn't overly impressed with them since I have seen this phase of the moon recently.
5/20/2010
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: about 60 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, Hutech Modified Canon Rebel XT
I tried setting up my Orion Off Axis Guider. I had a lot of problems getting the right configuration
with the visual back, the threads to the camera, and the guiding camera (a DSI). I eventaully did
get a usable configuration, although I was not happy with the way I had to lock in the DSI.
I did eventaully try to image M57, the Ring Nebula, but I goofed up on the computer controller for
the camera. Instead of taking 20 images of 2 minutes each, on;y 1 images was taken. And although
there is significant room for improvments, it is still my best image of M57 so far.
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This was supposed to be 20x2 minute exposures, but the remote only took 1 light frame. Despite that, this is still my best image of the Ring Nebula so far. Telescope: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC Camera: Hutech modified Canon XT Exposure: 1x2 minutes ISO: 1600 Processed in MaxDSLR, Photoshop with Astronomy Tools plugin |
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