Observing Log for Mike Durkin 3/19/2017 about 8:00PM-11:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 30-45 degrees Equipment: 16 inch Meade Lightbridge I wanted to try to get some use out of the 16 inch today I tried collimation with the laser and I think I did a decent job, although with other tools it would probably have been better. I looked at M42 and M43, which I also showed off to the neighbor. I also looked at the Eskimo Nebula. It had a bright core and an extended part that would "flare" a little with averted vision. Even with the 7.4mm eyepiece (216x), I was not able to make out the "Eskimo" details. For that I might need better collimation or magnification. I also observed galaxy NGC 2903. I also observed galaxy NGC 3115 (216x), the Spindle Galaxy. I did get a sense of how narrow it was. I also tried to observe the Leo Trio, all at 216x. For M66 I mostly made out only the core. A star nearby at magnitude 9.8 may have made seeing the arms harder. For M65, the core didn't seem as concentrated, but seemed bigger in the eyepiece. And for NGC 3628, I wasn't able to make out at all. I had thought about doing some variable star observing, and using the 16 inch, I seem to be able to see stars as faint as mag 12.8 or so. I also did a quick visual meaasurement of α Ori. 3/5/2017 about 8:00PM-10:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 4-5/5 Temperature: about 20-35 degrees Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm refractor Measured variable stars R CMi, V CMi, RT Cnc, T Cnc, Z UMa and U Per. Earlier I had thought about using the 16 inch Dob, but I didn't want to bother with the cold. I also though about looking up some of the items in the book "Turn Left at Orion", but I think the 70mm scope was a bit too small for most items, unless it was listed only for binoculars. Other Log Entries <-- 2016 Jan  Feb  Mar   Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec   2018 -->