Observing Log for Mike Durkin 3/15/2020 about 8:00PM-10:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 35-45 degrees Equipment: 16 inch Meade Lightbridge Dob Looked at Venus for a bit. Looked close to 50% illuminated and there seemed to be a blue fringe around the terminator side. Using a color filter to cut down the glare did help a bit. I also tried to see if I could see any of the brighter parts of nebulocity around the Seagull Nebula, but I didn't. While I was scanning around, I did also see open cluster NGC 2343. Visually measure variable stars R CMi, S CMi and V CMi. Finished up by looking at galaxies M81 and M82. The core of M81 was easily visible, but could not make out any of the spiral structure. Maybe a hint of some of the galaxy just outside the core. M82, was also not too hard to see. Could make out that it was not evenly illuminated. I also think I came across NGC 3077 which I believe is a member of the M81/M82 cluster. 3/8/2020 about 10:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 30-40 degrees Equipment: none Just a quick viual measurement of α Ori. 3/1/2020 about 7:00PM-9:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5 Temperature: about 25-35 degrees Equipment: 70mm Stellarvue refractor Started observing Venus. Looked to be about 50% illuminated. I tried to cut down on the glare using some of the colored planetary filters, even stacking the blue and green, but they only helped so much. Then looked at the moon. I think I may have seen the "Lunar X" although I still don't think it is that impressive. I did try to take a picture with my cellphone camera. I thought I saw a valley in the norther part of the terminator, but have not been able to identify. Also took a quick look at M42/M43. Louis came out for a bit and I showed him the moon as well as the Orion nebula. I tried to see what Sirius would look like through the telescope and if there was any chance I could see the white dwarf. I didn't, although while using high magnification (6.8mm eyepiece and 5x barlow lens) I saw the Airy disk clearer than I have ever seen before. There were about 4-5 rings visible. Also looked at NGC 457 (ET or Owl cluster) in Cassiopeia. It was a bit smaller and fainter than I expected. Also measured the variable stars W Ori and BL Ori. Other Log Entries <-- 2019 Jan  Feb  Mar   Apr   May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  2021 -->