Observing Log for Mike Durkin
5/27/2013 about 8:00PM-10:30PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 4/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: 10x50 binoculars and 70mm Stellarvue refractor.
Started out looking for Venus, Jupiter and Mercury. They were pretty low, so I couldn't set up my
scope to observe and was limited to my binoculars. I was only able to make out Venus by naked eye.
Venus was the brightest, followed by Jupiter, then Mercury.
After that the clouds got worse, but I was able to observe Z UMa and VY UMa before I gave up since
the clouds were just too bad.
5/27/2013 about 2:00AM-3:30AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 45-55 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
DSLR photometry of δ Sco, κ Oph, and P Cyg.
5/21/2013 about 2:00AM-4:30AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 40-50 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
Tried DSLR photometry of δ Sco, CH Cyg, and P Cyg. I did have to cut
short my measurement of CH Cyg because it was getting late, however I think
that the star is too red for DSLR photometry, so I'll use my sample images
to check the color index.
5/5/2013 about 8:00PM-10:00PM
Hofstra University, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 40-50 degrees
Equipment: Various SCTs
Helped out with Prof. Lubowich pubic session at Hofstra.
Observed mostly Jupiter and Saturn. After that I tried to observer M35 in Gemini
and M67 in Cancer. But either I was way off in trying to find it, or the light pollution
made them too hard to find. Also the telescope I was using had problems aligning
and Linda thought that the hand controller was not finctioning properly.
5/4/2013 about 9:00PM-4:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 40-50 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 and Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
I though about imaging either galaxy M51 or galaxy NGC 5317. I decided on NGC 5317.
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Location: Long Island, NY Telescope: Celestron Ultima 8, 2000mm focal length, f/10 Camera: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT Exposure: 19x480seconds (152 minutes total) ISO: 1600 Calibrated with dark and flat frames Light pollution clip in filter was used as well |
I had to cut my session a little short becuase the sky eventually becaime overcast.
Later one when it was partly cloudy, I saw two very bright meteors that originated from low in the east. When I looked up online to see if there was a metwor shower, I saw that this was the time for the Eta Aquarids, and the origin for both meteors could easily have been in Aquarius.
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