Had more strong winds on Tuesday, 16 March.  Gusts to 44 MPH.  (Stronger winds are forecast for later this week.)  And cirrus clouds appeared in the afternoon, getting more numerous as evening approached.  Even with the clouds, I hoped to see a very young (26 hour old) thin crescent moon near the planet Venus low in the west after sunset.

I opened the observatory at 1805 MST, temp=68°F, but did not power-on the telescope (due to the clouds).  Shortly before sunset, at 1830 MST, I located Venus in 7x50 binoculars, shining brightly through the clouds.  Unfortunately, where the moon would be was covered by the clouds. The clouds did make for a pretty sunset, as seen in the above photo taken with my iPhone 3GS from inside the open POD.

At 1849 MST, I located the thin crescent moon through the clouds.  I then began taking a series of photographs using the 70-300mm VR lens on the D70 DSLR.  At 1853 MST, I captured the moon:

At 1904 MST, I took this photo of Venus (left) and the moon (right).  Can you see the moon?

At 1919 MST, Venus and the moon were lower in the sky and the clouds no longer covered them.  And Earthshine was just becoming visible on the moon.

Here is the moon taken with the telephoto lens set to 300mm.  The exposure was 1/10sec at ISO 1250.  The VR (Vibration Reduction) lens is great for handheld photos in low light!

The cirrus clouds were over most of the sky now and the wind was getting stronger again.  So I closed up the observatory at 1925 MST, 54°F.