Observing Log for Mike Durkin 1/26/2019 about 9:30PM-11:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 4-7/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 25-35 degrees Equipment: 70mm Stellarvue refractor After a cloudy afternoon, the sky started to clear, but I was fooled a little bit because even though it looked mostly clear at first, it became mostly cloudy quickly, although it was not a very thick layer of clouds. Took a quick look at M45. I tried to see if I could see the companion star of Polaris with a 7.4mm eyepiece and a 2x barlow lens(114x), but I was not able too. I was able to observe open cluster M50 in Monoceros. I had to use the 7.4mm eyepiece to start to see the cluster. With lower powers, only a couple of the brightest stars of the cluster were visible. I also tried to see if I could visual detect any of the nebulocity in the Seagull Nebula but I was ot able to. And I also wanted to see if I couls see the planetary nebula IC 418 in Lepus. It is listed as being magnitude 9.6 and I was able to see a stellar like object in the location of the nebula. Although I can't be certain that I wasn't only seeing the central star. I probably need to use a larger telescope to make that distinction. Also visually measured that variable stars BK Ori and X Mon. 1/20/2019 about 10:30PM-12:00AM Forest Hills, NY Transparency: 7/10, Seeing ?/5 Temperature: about 20-30 degrees Equipment: 10x50 binoculars Lunar Eclipse night! The temperature was severly cold. Initial weather reports had projected some snow, but in the end there was no snowfall. I mostly stood in the lobby of my apartment building where is was warmer and would occasionally step outside to view with my binoculars. There was also 1 family who was taking some pictures with a DSLR and I also showed the doorman the eclipse. I thought the eclipse was a little on the darker side compared to some previous years. Once the total eclipse began, I would say that most of the moon appeared dark red. There was one edge that was a bit bright and a grey-blue colorin between the red and bright sections. One other AOS member had mentioned the same coloration in their report. 1/6/2019 about 9:30-10:30PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 6/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 25-35 degrees Equipment: 10x50 binoculars Still cold, but I bundled up and didn't feel it as bad. I was able to measure the variable star W Ori. I also tried to measure Y Tau and V465 Cas, but the clouds kept getting in the way, so I gave up after a bit. 1/5/2019 about 10:00PM-11:30PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 35-45 degrees Equipment: Hutech modified DSLR DSLR photometry of ε Aur and then a visual measurement of α Ori. Despite the good sky conditions, the ground was still wet from raining all day. I also felt very cold, even though the termperature was not that low, possibly due to humidity? Other Log Entries <-- 2018  Jan   Feb  Mar   Apr  May   Jun  Jul  Aug   Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  2020 -->