Observing Log for Mike Durkin
10/30/2011 about 8:00PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 30-40 degrees
Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm and Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
Observed variable stars T Aqr, R Aql, and V Cyg.
I had to rest a little because of a headache, but after that, I tried DSLR photometrty readong of
P Cyg. There were some wispy clouds, so I think my measurement will have some problems.
10/23/2011 about 9:00PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 45-55 degrees
Equipment: Orion 127mm Mak
Observed variable stars RT Cyg, RS Cyg, U Cyg, and V Cas.
I'm still not sure if using the Mak is better than the short tub refractor.
10/23/2011 about 1:00PM-5:00PM
East Meadow Public Library, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Coronado Hydrogen α PST, and AOS Hydrogen α club scope.
Another AOS outreach event, this time at the library, first time I had ever been there.
We had quite a few people show up for solar observing and we showed them plenty of sunspots,
and a couple faint prominences.
10/22/2011 about 9:00PM-12:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
Attempted to do a light curve of DO Cas as it goes into eclipse. After about 90-120 minutes, clouds came
in and cut it short. I did plot the data I did have and it did show that the star dimmed by
about 0.2 magnitudes
10/21/2011 about 11:00PM-3:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Hutech Modified Canon Rebel XT, Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, Imaging Source DMK 31AU03.AS
DSLR photometry of P Cyg.
Also my first use of the RGB filters and new filter wheel with the Imaging Source camera which I used
on Jupiter.
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Location: Long Island, NY Camera: DMK 31AU03 Telescope: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, and 2x barlow lens First attempt at using the RGB filter wheel and filters with this camera. Process:6 videos files total (2x Red, 2x Green, 2x Blue) were stacked and aligned in Registax 6. Then each Red, Green, and Blue image was combined in Photoshop to make a single RGB image. These steps were carries out twice in order to make the two frames of the animation. I was hoping to make some more, but clouds limited me to the two frames, which are separated by about 15 minutes. |
10/18/2011 about 8:30PM-9:00PM
Forest Hills, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 60 degrees
Equipment: Naked eyes
Checked limiting visibility for Worldwide Star Count. I was suprised that I was able
to just make out stars as dim as mag 4. I was expecting only to be able to make out
mag 3 stars.
10/17/2011 about 9:00PM-10:00PM
College Point, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
DSLR photometry of P Cyg.
10/16/2011 about 12:00PM-2:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Coronado Hydrogen α PST, Imaging Source DMK 31AU03.AS camera
Tracking handled by AstroTrac
Yesterday's observing of the sun had me itching to take some pictures of the sun
There was still some nice solar activity which I was able to capture
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Telescope: Coronado Hydrogen Alpha PST Camera: Imaging Source DMK 31AU03.AS with 2x barlow lens Location: Long Island, NY Video files aligned and stacked in Registax, and final processing done in Photoshop. It was a little tricky trying to get the two final images aligned to make the panorama. |
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Telescope: Coronado Hydrogen Alpha PST Camera: Imaging Source DMK 31AU03.AS with 2x barlow lens Location: Long Island, NY Tracking handled by AstroTrac Video files aligned and stacked in Registax, and final processing done in Photoshop. |
10/15/2011 about 11:00AM-5:00PM
Oyster Bay, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Primarily a Coronado Hydrogen α PST
MAUS at Oysterfest.
Showed off the sun in a PST to a couple dozen people through out the day.
There were some scattered clouds and it was very windy, so it was a little less
than ideal conditions, but still pretty good.
The sun displayed a couple of active regions/sunspot groups as well as a couple of small
prominences. Nice the see some activity on the sun for a change.
I ended up with a mild sunburn on my forehead.
10/14/2011 about 10:00PM-1:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm, Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
Measured variable stars Z Peg, W Peg, R Cas.
Also took a DSLR photometry measurement of P Cyg.
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