Observing Log for Mike Durkin 12/26/2011 about 6:30-8:00 PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 6/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 30-40 degrees Equipment: Orion 127mm Mak Observed variable star RS Cyg before the clouds got too thick. Even with the clouds, for a while I was able to observe the moon and Jupiter. I did notice a bit of a line between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis, dividing the two seas. I don't know if it was a ridge, or maybe a mountain from one of the crater edges casting a long shadow ? All 4 moons of Jupiter were observed, as well as both equitorial belts, but could not see any sign of the Great Res Spot. Mostly observed with the 17mm eyepiece (90x) and the same eyepiece with a 2x barlow (180x). I also tried using my iPhone cellphone camera on Jupiter through the 30mm and 17mm eyepiece, but wasn't able to get any decent images. 12/26/2011 about 6:30-8:00 PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 30 degrees Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm refractor Observed variable stars Z Cyg and RU Cyg befire it got too cloudy. During the evening, the tripod tipped over and the scope fell. So far I seem lucky that the only damage was the dew shield was dented. 12/18/2011 about 6:00PM-12:30AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 20-30 degrees Equipment: Hutech Modified Rebel XT Tried some DSLR photometry on P Cyg, X Per, γ Cas, and α Ori. For γ Cas and α Ori, I took a lot of extra light frames to try to build up signal to noise ration so that I could get a decent measurement of some of the dimmer stars. 12/4/2011 about 6:00PM-9:30PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 6/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 40-50 degrees Equipment: Hutech Modified Rebel XT, Stellarvue 70mm refractor Started taking a DSLR photometry mesurement of P Cyg. Then tried to observe some variable stars, but it because too cloudy. 12/2/2011 about 11:00PM-1:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 30-40 degrees Equipment: Orion 127mm Mak Observed variab;e stars Mira, X And, and W Cas. Other Log Entries <-- 2010 Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec   2012 -->