Cassiopeia Observatory Reports
Cassiopeia Observatory Reports
Crescent Moon
Tuesday evening, 17 November. I opened the POD at 1705 MST (temp=68°F) and unparked the LX200-ACF. I was going to try to see a very young crescent moon. At 1710 MST, I did a GOTO the moon but it was not visible yet (sky too bright). And the telescope was pointing at some low tree branches to the southwest so it was possible that I would not see the moon at all. At 1718, I went to Jupiter; four moons were visible and Jupiter’s disk was very nice in the still bright sky. The disk was not glaringly bright like it would be against a dark sky. 1720 MST, 64°F, sunset. Still no moon visible. 1744 MST, found the moon! I first saw it in 7x50 binoculars, and then in the telescope with a 26mm eyepiece. Unfortunately, the moon was well into the tree branches and so was not a very good view. I was unable to get a photograph due to the tree and the low altitude. The moon was 28h 20m old. This was not the youngest moon I have seen. That occurred on 27 May 2006 when I saw a 21h 18m old moon from Oracle. You can see my report and photographs on my Oracle Observatory entry. I closed up the POD at 1800 MST, 57°F.
Wednesday evening, 18 November, I again made an attempt for the crescent moon. I open the POD at 1700 MST, 69°F, and unparked the telescope. It had been partly cloudy all day and there were still some clouds in the east at sunset but the western sky was clear. I was able to get one reasonable photograph of the moon. It was into the tree branches this night as well but was at least much brighter than it had been the previous night. This photo was taken at prime focus with the Nikon D70 DSLR, 1/200sec, ISO 800:
The moon was 2d 2h 45m old when the photo was taken at 1725 MST.
I then went to Jupiter; four moons were visible. I am still recovering from the Swine Flu so I closed up the POD at 1735 MST, 61°F. As I was leaving, I took the photo at the top of the page showing the SkyShed POD and the crescent moon.
This morning I did a slight mod to the POD door handle. As shipped, the handle was bare metal. I didn’t like that. So after doing lots of searching at the local hardware stores for a solution, I purchased a 1 foot long piece of 3/8” inside diameter plastic tubing (cost = 25 cents). I cut a piece 2” long. The handle is 5/8” wide so the tube would fit when flattened, albeit tightly, over the handle. It took some effort and some soap for lubrication, but I was finally able to get the tube to slide on. Here’s the “new” handle:
The plastic makes it much more comfortable to grab the handle when opening and closing the POD door.
Thursday, November 19, 2009