Observing Log for Mike Durkin
12/23/2019 about 6:30PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: 30-40 degrees
Equipment: Canon Rebel T3i and 200mm lens
I originally tried to use the AstroTrac, but it looks like the Duracell battery is finally at it's
end. Even though it should be fully charged, the meter says 0% capacity. I need to figure out
a way to dispose of and get a replacement.
So instead I switched to the Star Adventurer. I took some images of the Heart Nebula, comet C/2017 T2
(PANSTARRS) and the area around the star Atik to see if I can pick up some nebulocity.
I have to remember though that when using the Star Adventurer like this, the camera is 90 degrees from
what I would normally expect.
Also should note that even though I could not visially see clouds, some of the images definitely showed
a thin layer of clouds.
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Location: Locust Valley, NY Camera: Hutech modified Canon T3i Lens: EF200mm f/2.8L II USM at f/3.2 ISO: 800 Exposure: about 418x15 seconds (104.5 minutes) Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Calibrated with dark frames and flat frames Processed in MaximDL and Photoshop with Astronomy Tools There were also some gradients in this image that I had trouble with. |
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Location: Locust Valley, NY Camera: Hutech modified Canon T3i Lens: EF200mm f/2.8L II USM at f/3.2 ISO: 1600 Exposure: 10x15 seconds (2.5 minutes) Calibrated with dark frames, no flat frames |
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Location: Locust Valley, NY Camera: Hutech modified Canon T3i Lens: EF200mm f/2.8L II USM at f/3.2 ISO: 1600 Exposure: 113x13 seconds (24.48 minutes) Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Calibrated with dark frames, no flat frames Processed in MaximDL and Photoshop with Astronomy Tools There seemed to be some extra color gradients that were a bit of an issue. |
12/23/2019 about 12:15 AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: 30-40 degrees
Equipment: none
Just a quick visual measurement of α Ori.
12/21/2019 7:30-9:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 6-9/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: 25-35 degrees
Equipment: Stellarvue 70mm
After readong about comet C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS), I decided to tryto find it. I was able to find the right field of view according to Sky Safari, but I was not able to see any coma. Along the way I did pass over star cluster NGC 1528, but could only see a few stars in the cluster, mostly with averted vision.
After that it got too cloudy for me to try to observe any variable stars.
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