Observing Log for Mike Durkin 6/19/2009 5:00PM-1:00AM Stone Tavern Farm, Roxbury, NY Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: about 60 degrees Equipment: Coronado PST, Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, Stellarvue 70mm Starfest Weekend!! The weather forcast looked miserable for the weekend initially, however things started to improve around dinner time. I broke out the PST and was able to observe a couple of prominences, which I showed to a couple of the other attendees. After the talk by Paul Dellechiaie, the skies were mostly clear, so I went down to the field to observe. Lily was with me, so I showed her a few items. Saturn - The rings were almost edge on and we could see a couple of the other moons. One of Lily's favorites. M3 - globular cluster M5 - globular cluster M64 - Blackeye Galaxy. Unable to make out any sort of dust lane, but it did not look like it was uniform brightness. M4 - Globular cluster M11, Wild Duck cluster - almost appeared like a globular cluster with a bright star near it's center. M17, Swan Nebula - long slender patch with a fainter "hook" at the end representing the swan's neck and head. I also tried to observe M101, but things started getting hazy. Most people, including myself, wrapped it up for a night at that point. Also observed in other people's scopes: Alberio M57, Ring Nebula NGC 7000, North American Nebula - First time I have seen visually. Both sections of the Veil Nebula Just before packing it up for the night, Sue French showed me Jupiter in her scope. She pointed out what looked like a shadow transit across Jupiter's disk, however when I checked in Starry Night, it seems more likely that it was Callisto itself and not the shadow that we saw. Other Log Entries <-- 2008 Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun   Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  2010 -->