Observing Log for Mike Durkin 8/25/15 8:00PM-9:30PM Highline Park, NYC, NY Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 75-85 degrees Equipment: borrowed small Mak, maybe about 90-100mm objective AAA public session on the Highline. I wanted to use my binoculars to look at variable stars, but no benches were open. May need to wait for summer to end for that. Looked at the Moon and Saturn through one of the volunteers' telescopes. On the Moon the terminator cut Ptolomey and Herschel. A couple of intersting craters near the north polar region as well. Saturn was a bit small in the scope. I probably saw Titan and either a background star or one of the other moons. I could not make a clear identification though. 8/22/15 9:00PM-1:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 6-10/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 60-75 degrees Equipment: Canon Rebel T3i DSLR photometry of P Cyg, CH Cyg and R Lyr. I was able to overcome the problem of the odd exposures at images between the zenith and Polaris by using the binocular to tripod adapter. I also tried to image the area around the Elephant nebula in Cepheus, but clouds eventually moved in. 8/19/15 12:00AM-2:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 6-9/10, Seeing 3-4/5 Temperature: about 65-75 degrees Equipment: Canon Rebel T3i Tried DSLR photometry of AC Her, P Cyg, CH Cyg and R Lyr. Only AC Her seemed to go totally without a hitch. For P Cyg, I over exposed η Cyg, but the rest were OK, so data should still be usable. For CH Cyg, my focus shifted and the lens dewed up. For R Lyr, clouds moved in and that was the end. 8/15/15 9:00PM-11:00PM Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center, Jones Beach Transparency: 6-9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 65-75 degrees Equipment: 127mm Mak and 10x50 binoculars Observed Saturn, M22 and M11. Observed variable stars GY Aql, R Aql and RV Aql. Before I left, I looked though Rich K's binoculars and just barely made out Ceres. 8/9/15 9:00PM-12:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 65-75 degrees Equipment: 10x50 binoculars and Canon Rebel T3i Observed variable stars α Sco, ST UMa, VY UMa, W Boo, τ4 Ser and FQ Ser. I didn't submit mu observation for α Sco because my observation was a bit off compared to the other observations. Also DSLR photometry of P Cyg and CHI Cyg. For CH Cyg the came did that wieird thing again where if the camera is pointing a little upside down, some of the exposures are dim. 8/7/15 10:00PM-12:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 60-70 degrees Equipment: Canon T3i DSLR Quick DSLR photometry of R Lyr and P Cyg. 8/2/15 9:00PM-12:30AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 7-9/10, Seeing 2/5 Temperature: about 65-75 degrees Equipment: Canon T3i DSLR DSLR photometry of δ Scp, κ Oph, AC Her, P Cyg, CH Cyg. Note that for CH Cyg because the camera was at that backward angle, that every other image seemed to be at 1/2 exposure. Also tried to do a quick image of comet C/1015 F4, Jacques near Alberio mentioned in the AOS mailing list. Initially I was not able to find it. 8/1/2015 about midnight-2:00 AM (need to verify) Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 65-75 degrees Equipment: Canon T3i DSLR DSLR photometry of R Lyr and P Cyg. The moon was essentially full. Other Log Entries <-- 2014 Jan  Feb   Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug   Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec   2016 -->