Observatory opened Sunday, 19 September, at 2056 MST, 83°F, under clear skies, but there were strong breezes blowing.  At 2105 MST, viewed Jupiter with the 26mm (77X) eyepiece.  The four Galilean Moons were all visible on one side of Jupiter.  Then went over to the waxing gibbous moon; very bright in the 26mm eyepiece (didn’t use the moon filter).  Set up for iPhone imaging.  For the afocal moon image above, I added a focal reducer to the 8” telescope and used a 26mm eyepiece.

Then it was back to Jupiter.  Took some iPhone afocal images of Jupiter with the focal reducer + 26mm eyepiece.  Then removed the focal reducer and took some more afocal images through the 26mm eyepiece.  Jupiter is overexposed and the image slightly trailed, but the four moons are visible:

Then I viewed Jupiter with the 5.5mm (364X) eyepiece.  Seeing wasn't very good, and it was still very breezy.  Then went back to the moon and did some terminator viewing at 364X.  The view was not very good tonight.  I tried doing some iPhone afocal imaging with the 9mm eyepiece + 3X TeleXtender.  Here is the best one, edited to bring out the mountain shadows:

2153 MST, took a quick look at the moon with the 15mm (133X) eyepiece.  Nice view.

I then checked out the shortwave receiver I had installed in the SkyShed POD on Saturday, 18 September.  I had decided that I needed an accurate time signal in the observatory after observing a Ganymede transit of Jupiter the previous night,.  The cell phone time is not accurate enough.  And with all the power failures the local electrical company has, trying to keep the electrical clock displaying accurate time is a pain.  So, I moved my old Radio Shack shortwave receiver (purchased in 1979) to the POD.  It can receive several shortwave bands so I can get WWV.  I set up it during the day; then needed to wait until night to ensure the antenna I wired up would be adequate.

During my checkout, I was able to receive some Mexican shortwave stations (not surprising).  I did receive a strong WWV signal at 5 MHz, but no WWV signal at 2.5 MHz, 10 MHz, nor 15 MHz.  I also could not receive the CHU signal at 7.85 MHz, but I didn’t expect to be able to receive it.  With the good WWV reception at 5 MHz, I decided that I would leave my antenna wiring (looped around the bay with the receiver) as-is for now.

Closed the observatory at 2210 MST, 81°F.  Strong breezes were still blowing.