Observing Log for Mike Durkin
6/30/2012 about 11:30-4:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 70 degrees
Equipment: Hutch modified DSLR
Tried to use my DSLR to measure a transit of exoplanet Hutch HD189733 b.
After processing, the variotions were too large to consider. I'm not sure
what is the best step to get better measurements. My variations were well
over 0.03 magnitudes.
6/23/2012 about 8:30PM-1:00AM
Robert Moses State Park, NY
Transparency: 5/10, Seeing: 4/5
Temperature: about 60-70 degrees
Equipment: 70mm Stellarvue and Hutch modified DSLR
First time out at RMSP with the new permit.
A nice crescent moon was out, which I used to get my camera in focus.
Lots of cars were coming and going, which was very annoying with the
birhgt headlights.
So I set up my DSLR camera to image the Antares/ρ Ophiuchus region
with my zoom lens at 75mm. Unfortunatly, there was significant thin
clouds which I think will ruin my final image.
|
|
Location: Robert Moses State Park, NY Camera: Hutech Modified Canon Rebel XT Lens: 70mm zoom lens @ f/4 Exposure: 150x40 seconds (100 minutes) ISO: 1600 Tracking: AstroTrac Calibrated with dark and flat frames. Processed using MaxDSLR and Photoshop. |
The Bradley brothers told me about an ISS pass which we were able to see. It started in the northwest, was very bright, and finally lost visibility in the southeast.
I also did some variable star observing of S Boo, Z UMa, R UMa, and RT Aql.
Also during the evening, my diagonal fell out and a piece with threads was dented. I was able to screw it back in, but I think I need to get a new diagonal.
6/5/2012 about 5:00PM-8:30PM
Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center, Jones Beach, NY
Transparency: 3/10, Seeing: 4/5
Temperature: about 60 degrees
Equipment: 127mm Mak with solar filter
Today is the transit of Venus! Unfortunatly, the weather forcast is pretty bad for the day. I set up my
equipment and then waited to see if the sun would peek out through the clouds. A couple of times it even
started to drizzle a little.
Then at about 8:00 PM, we finally saw a part of the sun peeking though a gap in the clouds. At first I confused
a couple of sunspots with Venus, but then the gap moved enough to clearly show Venus. It was significantly
bigger than the sunspots. I viewed with the 30mm eyepiece(51x).
I tried taking a picture with my cellphone, but I could not get that to work. After that I rushed to
try to get a picture with my DSLR, but by then the clouds covered Venus.
It was about 5 minutes total that we were able to see Venus and there were not further gaps in the clouds
for the rest of the evening.
6/3/2012 about 1:00AM-3:30AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 60 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
DSLR Photometry of W Boo, R Lyr, and P Cyg. The moon was a bit bright and there might have been some wispy clouds that were not obvious.
<-- 2011 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2013 -->