5 May.  Clear, but a breeze came up mid-morning.  And then some clouds and stronger winds (gusts to 34 MPH) later in the day.  Cloudy and windy at sunset.  No observing.

Another "Mike" on the SkyShed POD Group saw the moon photographs from my previous report and noticed that there was a significant overlap in the images.  He stitched them together to make a nice mosaic.  He used "Microsoft ICE" (on Windows).  I don't use Windows but have used the Mac OS X software called "DoubleTake" to make panoramas of some of my terrestrial photographs.  So, out of curiosity, I used DoubleTake to automatically stitch the moon images.  Mike was right, the result is rather pleasing.  Click the image to see a full size version.

I'll have to plan some future shots of the moon with this "astrostitching" capability in mind.

6 May.  Clear, but breezy in the morning.  Then gusts to 36 MPH and clouds appeared.  However, the clouds went away as sunset approached and the winds were forecast to go away.  I opened the observatory at 1823 MST, temp=84°F.  I tested out my eyepiece tray cardboard mockup:

As you can see, it will hold two 2” and six 1-1/4” eyepieces.  It will attach to the tripod spreader bar using small bolts.  No holes will be drilled in the spreader bar as there will be two narrow metal bars, one over and one under the spreader bar.  No disassembly of the telescope mount will be required to attach or remove the eyepiece tray.  I left this mockup attached to the tripod all night to verify that its placement would not interfere with my movement around the tripod nor with the AutoStar cable and that eyepieces could be reached from almost every location in the POD.  The next step will be to get a piece of wood for the tray and the metal bars for the supports.  Then I will drill out the eyepiece holes and assemble the tray.  Stay tuned.

Had a couple of visitors:

At 1936 MST, 71°F, the breezes were mostly gone so I powered up the telescope and viewed Venus in the 26mm and 15mm eyepieces.  Venus was very bright.  I added the moon filter to the 15mm, and then the 5.5mm eyepieces.  That reduced the brightness and made viewing better.

1949-2004 MST, viewed Saturn in 26mm, 15mm, 9.7mm, and 5.5mm eyepieces.  The moons Titan and Rhea were visible.  Two other moons, Dione and Tethys, were too close to the rings to see tonight as seeing was not quite good enough.

2045 MST, viewed M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules.  With the 15mm + 3X TeleXtender (400X), I could resolve a few stars near the core.  But the best view was with the 9.7mm (206X) eyepiece.

2142 MST, finished dealing with a couple of large spiders in the observatory.  Got the white one but the black one got away.  I then viewed the Omega Centauri globular cluster in the 26mm and 2” 30mm eyepieces.  The view was better in the 26mm eyepiece.  I switched to the 15mm eyepiece, which provided a nice clear view of the cluster.

2223 MST, viewed NGC5128.  This is the famous Centauri A galaxy.  It was past prime viewing  by the time I was observing it, but with averted vision, I could see the dark lane and the faint galaxy in the 15mm eyepiece.  I have added it to my astrophotography list.

2323 MST, began setting up for astrophotography of M57, the Ring Nebula.  Used the Bahtinov Mask for focusing (example image at the top of the page).  Here is a 15 minute, ISO 1600, guided exposure taken at prime focus + Off-Axis Guider, with the Nikon D70 DSLR (image slightly cropped):

At 0052 MST, I began imaging of M20, the Trifid Nebula.  Here is a 10 minute, ISO 1600, guided image (slightly cropped) image (focus is slightly off):

This is a 5 minute, ISO 1600, guided image (not cropped) of M8, the Lagoon Nebula (the glow at upper left is sensor noise):

I ended DSO astrophotography at 0220 MST.  I saw a few Aquarid meteors about this time.  One even crossed M8 as I was observing it in the 26mm eyepiece.  Both M8 and M20 had a lot of detail visible in the 26mm eyepiece.

0247 MST, the eastern sky was beginning to brighten from the rising just past last quarter moon.  I started observing a long list of DSOs in the 26mm eyepiece: M22, M7, M4, M6, M15, M27, M2, M17, M11, M5, M52, M16, and M31.  I was also able to view Neptune through some tree branches and see its blue disk with the 26mm eyepiece.

0335 MST, viewed the moon through the tree branches.  At times, the view was very clear along the terminator with the 5.5mm eyepiece.  At 0408 MST, I began some lunar astrophotography.  Here is a prime focus, 1/200sec, ISO 640, exposure:

And some prime focus + 3X TeleXtender images:

I stitched the four images together in DoubleTake (click image to see the full size version):

0420 MST, the sky was brightening from the approaching sunrise.  I viewed Jupiter just over the hill to the east in the 26mm eyepiece.  Four moons and some clouds bands were visible.

After just over 10 hours in the POD, I closed the observatory at 0430 MST, 59°F.