Observing Log for Mike Durkin 10/21/2017 about about 7:30-10:30PM Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center at Jones Beach, NY Transparency: 5/10, Seeing: 3/5 Temperature: 50-60 degrees Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 inch SCT with PEC Went to an AOS session at the beach. Unfortunately, I was the only non-board member and the sky had a thin layer of clouds the whole time. I did look at M31 and M32, although for M31 I don't think conditions were good enough except to see the core. No hint of the dust lane. I also tried to see M33, but no luck, even with the NGC objects within the galaxy. Also saw Uranus, which was pretty easy to find. It only started to show a hint of a disk at higher magnification. Also saw a couple of objects thru George's scope. The ET cluster, M45 and a nice view of Uranus where the disk was slightly more noticeable. George also said thathe was able to pick up some of the nebulocity around M45 using averted vision. To me there did seem to be a bit of a haze around the brightest stars in M45, but I don't know if that was actual nebulocity or my eyes playing tricks on me. 10/20-21/2017 about 11:30PM-1:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing: 2/5 Temperature: 50-60 degrees Equipment: 5 inch Mak Observed var stars U Cyg and Z Cyg. Also looked at double-double in Lyr. I may have just barely stared to split them. I tried to observe NGC 6884. I probably barely saw it. It looked like a stellar object wit no noticeable size or color. Also observed M77, Cetus A. A galaxy, easy to pick out at 30mm and smaller. It seemed to be right next to a foreground star, HIP 12668. I also tried to see if I could pick out NGC 1055. I may have started to see it with averted vision, but I am not very confident of that. 10/1/2017 about 7:00PM-9:30PM Hofstra University, NY Transparency: 9-10/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 60-70 degrees Equipment: Hofstra 11 inch SCTs Stars on Sunday at Hofstra. Before the crowd showed up, I helped Nancy get the telescope aligned and we also looked at Saturn and the Moon. When the crowd showed up we showed them the Moon, Saturn, M13, The E.T. cluster and Neptune. After the crowd left, we looked at the Ring Nebula and maybe we saw Uranus. Prof. Don also showed us the Wild Duck cluster and the E.T. cluster again. Other Log Entries <-- 2016 Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct   Nov  Dec   2018 -->