Observing Log for Mike Durkin
9/24/22 about 9:00PM-12:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: 50-60
Equipment: Canon Rebel T3i
Started by testing out the Canon 200mm prime lens to see how it handled
star colors. Mainly on the areas arond Vega/Lyra and Delphinus with
a range of colors. My initial reaction based on the display screen is that
if I an slightly out of focus, stars will either have a red or teal fringe.
I am also not sure how well blue and yellow stars will come through.
I also tried to image the area around Altair to try to get Bernard's "E"
nebula
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Barnard's "E" nebula and Altair Location: Long Island, NY Camera: Hutech modified Canon T3i Lens: 200mm Canon EF ISO: 1600 Exposure: 25x15s seconds (6.25 minutes) Calibrated with dark frames, no flats Processed in MaximDL and Photoshop with Astronomy Tools and GradientXterminator |
Then DSLR photometry of P Cyg and CH Cyg.
Based on some of the faint stars I saw in Andromeda, I think the limiting magnitude was close to 4.5.
9/23/22 about 8:00PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 2/5
Temperature: 50-60
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC
I original planned to try out the ASIAir again, but the evening was
very windy, so instead just tried some visual observing.
Saturn: The seeing was particlarly bad, so could only make out the ring
but not any more detailed features.
Saturn Nebula: Bright, and appeared as an out of focus star. Maybe
slightly oval. Maybe a hint of green color.
Jupiter: Best object of the night for me. One belt was clearly visible
with a dark reddish color. The other was not clearly visible and more
tan in color. Saw a moon's shadow right next the the Great Red Spot.
The display matched what I saw in the Sky Safari app. A green color filter
did help a little although the GRS seemed a bit smaller than I expected.
M73: A faint, small, Y shaped asterism.
M72: A globuar cluster, but might have only had a hint of the core. I am not
sure I really observed this.
9/9/22 about 11:00PM-12:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: 55-65
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon T3i
DSLR photometry of P Cyg, with bright full moon.
Also took a couple of pictures of the full moon. I was hoping
that is wasn't quite full and there would be some craters to see,
but it was pretty much full.
Also looked at Jupiter through the live preview. I could not see
any disk features, but I did see 3 moons. According to my Sky
Safari, it should be Europa on one side, Io and Ganymede on the other.
Callisto shuld also have been visible, but much further away from the
disk.
I think I also may need to do some extra cleaning of the sensor since
I saw some shadows in the photometry images.
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