Observing Log for Mike Durkin
3/14/2026 about 8:30PM-8:40PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: 35-45 degrees
Equipment: none
Just a quick visual magnitude measurement of α Ori. There did seem to be a little
bit of clouds in the sky.
3/1/2026 about 7:00PM-10:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: 30-40 degrees
Equipment: Seestar S50
I wanted to test a more thorough alignment process as described by the YouTube videos
by Space Koala. I did that and took some images of the Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174) and
the part of the Seagull Nebula, Gum 1. In the end I don't think the extra polar alignment
steps helped too much. There probably will also be some amount to trailing in EQ mode,
especially in the RA/horizontal direction. Perhaps there is some periodic error that will
always be there? Even though there was a nearly full moon, the image of the Monkey Head
Nebula looked acceptable, the image of Gum 1 had a significant gradient due to light
pollution, so trying to image low in the west or southwest is not a good idea.
I also did a quick visual magnitude measurement of α Ori.
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Monkey Head Nebula, NGC 2175 3/1/2026 about 7:00PM-10:00PM Locust Valley, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: 30-40 degrees Equipment: Seestar S50 Exposure: 180x10s (30 minutes) with Seestar nebula filter Processed in PixInsight and GIMP |
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LDN 1657 - part of the Seagull Nebula 3/1/2026 about 7:00PM-10:00PM Long Island, NY Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5 Temperature: 30-40 degrees Equipment: Seestar S50 Exposure: 156x10s (26 minutes) with Seestar nebula filter Processed in PixInsight and GIMP. The smaller image on the right has been cropped to look better. | |
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