Observing Log for Mike Durkin
9/25/2009 10:00PM-1:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 60 degrees
Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm, 10x50 binoculars
Did some of the 10 star citizen sky variable stars. Looked a bit at
Andromeda and double cluster with the Stellarvue. Got cloudy before I could
use the Stellarvue for some dimmer variables.
9/20/2009 8:00PM-10:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm, 10x50 binoculars
Some variables that were "eazy" in the AAVSO List. Need to get better at tracking.
Dew became a problem again.
9/19/2009 7:00PM-3:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 5/5
Temperature: about 50-60 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, Stellarvue 70mm, 10x50 binoculars
First I started on trying to get a webcam image of Jupiter. Looking through the 17mm eyepiece(118x), the seeing looked extremely clear. However I was having problems getting a sharp image when using my 2x barlow with the webcam. I also caught Jupiter at a really good time. Visually, I was able to make out one of the moon shadows crossing Jupiter. I wasn't able to make out the Great Red Spot visually, but it does show up pretty clearly in the webcam image.
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A webcam image of Jupiter. You can also see Io, Io's shadow crossing Jupiter, and the Great Red Spot. There is a dark spot to the left of the GRS that I can not identify. Camera: Toucam Pro. Telescope: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC Stacked and processed using Registax and Photoshop. |
At about 7:50, I noticed a strange, bright cloud to the south, even though the sky was mostly clear. I looked like it might be a jet coming through a cloud bank. I later found out that this was a man-made noctilucent cloud caused by the launch of a rocket from Wallops Island.
After that my equipment started to dew up, so I took it in for a little while to dry up.
After about an hour or two, my equioment dried up enough to go back out. After I was all set up, I tried to get centered on M31, but I had trouble finding a guide star to use. As my equipment started to dew up again, I saw M45 rising. Since finding a guidestar to use there was a lot easier, I decided to take am image of the Pleiades instead.
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I also saw a faint meteor that was in the direction from Taurus through Perseus.
9/18/2009 10:00PM-3:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 2/5
Temperature: about 60 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC and 10x50 binoculars
I wanted to start taking some webcam pictures of Jupiter, but it was already
a little low and the seeing was pretty bad.
After that I started taking some measurements of variabls stars in the 10 star
training program from the AAVSO. While I was looking I saw a fairly bright,
slow moving meteor. It started aroung Pegasus, and passed through
Casseopeia/Perseus towards the north.
After that I wanted to try out my autoguiding setup. I used the Toucam
on Aldebaran as a guide star. At this point, the scope had already started to
dew up, so the brighness was diminished. I was able to see Aldebaran on the
software, but I may have had the gain up to high, I need to start
tweeking things a little. I also had a little problem with my declination
motor, sometime the motor would not turn in one direction, even when
using the hand controller. I hopt this won't be a problem.
And before I finished for the night, ε Aurigae was coming over the
trees, and I've logged my first measurement with the AAVSO.
This night is also probably the first time I think I was just able to make out the
Milky Way from this location.
9/7/2009 1:45-2:15PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 6/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 70 degrees
Equipment: Coronado Hydrogen Alpha PST
No prominences that I was able to see. The clouds were also causing a bit of glare. I did see some
small clustering of dark spicules, but nothing that I would have considered significant. Conditions
weren't good enough for me to consider breaking out the webcam.
I did however notice a couple of small black dots crossing the solar disk at about 2:10 PM. I saw one
crossing first and then a few seconds later I saw another one crossing. I would estimate that it took about
5-10 seconds to cross the full disk for each of them.
9/5/2009 1:00-4:00PM
Oyster Bay, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 80-90 degrees
Equipment: Coronado Hydrogen Alpha PST
A couple of nice flares at the edge, no major details on the disk.
Was able to do some eyepiece projection with a 2x barlow and the Orion 25mm Plössl.
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