Observing Log for Mike Durkin
8/28/16 about 9:00PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing: 3/5
Temperature: 65-75 degrees.
Equipment: Canon Rebel T3i
After last night's grief, I decided to try another "pretty picture", but wide angle this way I would not
have to autoguide. I deceded to try to image the constellation Sagitta and some of the surrounding
area in order to include the Coathanger Cluster and the Dumbell Nebula. So far the individual frames
look promising
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Wide angle image of the constellation Sagitta, the arrow. Also in the image is the Coathanger cluster in the upper right (it looks upside down) and the Dumbbell nebula in the upper left. Camera: Hutech modified Canon Rebel T3i Mount: camera tripod with Astrotrac TT320X-AG Lens: 75-300mm zoom lens (set to 84mm), f/4.5 Exposure: 31x120 seconds(62 minutes). Calibrated with dark and flat frames. ISO: 1600 Filter: Astronomik CLS filter. Processed with MaximDL, Photoshop including the "Astronomy Tools" and "GradientXterminator" addons |
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The same image of Sagitta, with some extra processing to bring out the Milky Way and the dark nebulae. |
8/27/16 about 6:00PM-1:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing: 3/5
Temperature: 60-75 degrees.
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC and Canon Rebel T3i
Not a good night. I wanted to try to take an image of the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. It took me some hours to get all the gear set up. The Celestron off axis guider seems much more stable than the Orion one, but there doesn't seem to be as much flelxibility in rotating the off axis prism. Perhaps there is something in the manual. I aso had to use a small spacer on each path, the main DSLR and the off-axis.
Once I finally did get the gear set up, getting the Linux guiding software in Ekos was a problem. I could calibrate fine once I decreased the pulse length to something like 300ms. But then once I would start guiding, things would not work that well. It either lost track of the guide star or the adjustments were still loo large and my stars ended up more than a little oval.
I gave up around 1 AM.
So while I was breaking down I did notice that I didn't tighten down the altitude screws that I used during polar alignment. Maybe that was part of the problem?
I also think there is a more recent version of Kstars/Ekos, which may let me use PHD. I'll have to look into that as well.
8/26-27/16 about 11:00PM-1:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing: 4/5
Temperature: 65-75 degrees.
Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm refractor
Did some visual variable star measurements. The sky looked clear but kind of hazy, and I think that had an effect.
First I tried to measure R Aql, but I had a lot of trouble trying to see it. I may have caught a glimpse of it, but not enough to feel confident of a measurement. I also did RR Aql and Z del, which I was able to make out a lot easier.
8/18/16 about 6:00PM-11:00PM
Jones Beach boardwalk, NY
Transparency: 6-8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: 70-85 degrees
Equipment: Hofstra supplied 8 inch SCT
The yearly session when Professor Don has his public outreach session on the boardwalk of Jones Beach.
I picked one fo the 8 inch SCTs. I started up by trying to see the moon as it rose. It was a nice shade
of red-orange as it rose. The phase was nearly full. But it was also so low that a lot of the time
people walking along the boardwalk would block the view.
Then I wanted to focus on Saturn. I had trouble getting lined up, even when using the Telrad. Linda had to
help me with the NextStar hand controller. Then I spent the next couple of hours showing about 30-40 people
Saturn.
After that Prof. Don wanted to try something else, like Albireo. I tried to point to it, but by then clouds
were starting to move in. I waited for a bit longer, but the clouds never quite cleared enough, so that
was pretty much the end of the night.
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