4 May.  Clear and mostly without wind.  Opened the observatory at 1815 MST, temp=89°F.  I didn’t power up the telescope right away as I wanted to begin designing an eyepiece tray for the tripod.  I don’t like the tray that is part of the tripod spreader bar; it only holds three 1-1/4” eyepieces and is very close to the top of the tripod.  This position means there is not a lot of vertical clearance to the base of the tripod head, making it difficult to use the tray, especially with tall eyepieces.  I think I have came up with an easily made, workable tray.  I made a cardboard prototype.  I still have some more work to do on the design.  I’ll post the design here once I finalize it.

I powered up the telescope at 1933 MST and viewed Venus in the 26mm eyepiece (77X).  At 1953 MST, viewed Saturn in the 26mm, 15mm (133X), and 5.5mm (364X) eyepieces.  Three moons were visible: Titan, Tethys, and Dione.

At 2022 MST, I began viewing some DSOs in the 26mm eyepiece. NGC5466 (globular cluster) was large but faint.  M3 (globular cluster) was nice and similar to M92.  M5 (globular cluster) was very nice in the 8”.  M68 (globular cluster) was faint but easily seen.  NGC3115 (Spindle Galaxy) was faint and required averted vision to see its shape.  NGC4889 (elliptical galaxy) was faint and required averted vision to see it.

At 2135 MST, I spotted Omega Centauri (globular cluster) through some trees using 7x50 binoculars.  At 2143 MST, it cleared the trees.  Elevation was 8°12’ above the horizon and yet it was still clearly seen in the 26mm eyepiece.

I then began setting up for some astrophotography with the Nikon D70 DSLR.  I used Vega as a target focus star with the Bahtinov Mask.  Unfortunately, it was too bright and overexposed.  I switched to a fainter star and completed the focus test.  I then tried to image M13 at prime focus + 3X TeleXtender.  But, that was too much magnification for an unguided exposure.  I switched to a 2X Barlow Lens and refocused.  Again, too much magnification for an unguided exposure.  In both cases, there was slight image trailing.  So, I decided to stick to just prime focus for imaging DSOs.

I then viewed M4 (globular cluster).  Nice in 26mm eyepiece.

At 2255 MST, I viewed M57, the Ring Nebula.  I used the 26mm, 15mm, 9.7mm (206X), and 5.5mm eyepieces.  It was best in the 15mm; I could see details in the ring.  I then set up to image M57 and waited for it to get higher in the sky.  I used the Stiletto Focuser on Vega.  But when I did the test exposure, the focus was bad.  Apparently (I thought at the time), the focus must have moved when I swapped the Stiletto Focuser with the camera.  I focused Vega in the camera viewfinder and did some focus tests.  I eventually got what I thought was a pretty good focus.  The image at the top of this page was done at prime focus + Off-Axis Guider, 10 minutes, ISO 1600, guided, and is somewhat cropped from the original.  I plan to repeat the imaging of M57 on the next session to improve the focus and do a longer exposure.

By 0030 MST, the Milky Way was glowing in the eastern sky.  Lovely.  At 0040 MST, I viewed M20, the Trifid Nebula, and M8, the Lagoon Nebula, in the 26mm eyepiece.  Both were low in the southeast.  They will be future astrophotography targets.  I didn’t do them this night since the moon would be rising in a few minutes.

I then discovered why I had the focus problem when I swapped from the Stiletto Focuser to the DSLR.  The T-Ring had gone onto the camera crooked.  It took a while to get it back off.  This is the first time I’ve ever had this happen.  In the dark, it was not obvious that it had occurred when attaching the camera to the OAG.  I was lucky the camera did not come loose from the telescope.  But that is why I wrap the camera’s neck strap around the finderscope.

0059 MST, viewed the beautiful double star Albireo.  It was nice in the 15mm eyepiece.

0125 MST, while waiting for the moon to rise over the hill to the southeast, I was checking out the new “Transient Events” iPhone app.  This app notifies you of new astronomical discoveries and events.  I was looking at the satellite image for my location and noticed that it clearly showed “Cassiopeia Observatory” from space (courtesy of Google):

Cool!

At 0158 MST, the moon cleared the hill but it was still behind a tree.  At 0210 MST, the moon was still in the tree branches but I was able to get some nice views of the terminator in the 5.5mm eyepiece.  At 0250 MST, the moon cleared the tree and I started some astrophotography.  This is a prime focus, 1/160sec, ISO 500, image, of the near last quarter moon:

The following are prime focus + 3X TeleXtender, “hat trick”, ISO 200, exposures:

After being in the POD for 9 hours, I closed the observatory at 0315 MST, 59°F.  It was a fun night.