Observing Log for Mike Durkin 10/31/2020 about 12:00AM-1:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 8/10, Seeing ??/5 Temperature: about 30-40 degrees Equipment: Hutech modified Canon T3i Originally wanted to try DSLR photometry of P Cyg, but it was already too low in the west. So instead I went with γ Cas, κ Cas and ρ Cas. The nearly full moon was out as well. 10/17/2020 about 10:30PM-12:00AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3-4/5 Temperature: about 35-45 degrees Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm refractor Mostly clear night, and I really should have tried bringing out one of the bigger scoped to see Mars again, or even take some sort of image, but didn't feel up for it. So instead just tried to measure a few variable stars. Much colder than expected. Only got to measure SS Cyg and U Cyg. A couple of the other stars I tried were much too close to another star to reliably take a measurement. In the case of SS Cyg, I'm not 100% sure I eve saw the fainter 11.4 mag comparison star. 10/3-4/2020 about 9:00PM-12:30AM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 1-3/5 Temperature: about 50-65 degrees Equipment: Celestron 8 inch SCT With Mars opposition happening soon, I wanted to at least get some kind of view before it was too late. After I had the scope set up, Mars waas still behind the trees to the east. So I started by looking at Jupiter and Saturn. The view of both planets was pretty bad probably because they were above the house to the west. I was able to make out the 2 main bands of Jupiter and also to occasionally detect the shadow of the planet on the rings of Saturn. But overall the view wasn't really worth it. Just to verify that the problem was with the house causing turbulent air, I looked at globular cluster M15. It was relatively bright, but resolving individual stars was not easy. I did notice at one point that when I switched to my left I, I seemed to see little more of the outer stars of the cluster. Perhaps because me left eye had a little extra dark adaptation while I was using my right eye and keeping the left eye shut? Once Mars was clear of the trees, it was still too close to the apartment to the south east, so it was very "wavy". After a short while, it did clear the apartment and seeing details was easier. Initially, Syrtis Major was the main feature. It sort of reminded me of India with it's triangle shape. There was also a very small polar cap to the south. I took a quick look at the almost full moon. But since full moon was about 1-2 days ago, there were some craters near the limb that were nice. And to finish off, I went back to Mars. By this time Syrtis Major was rotating out of view and Sinus Sabaeus was rotating into view. Other Log Entries <-- 2019 Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr   May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct   Nov  Dec  2021 -->