Tuesday, 21 September.  On a previous report, I mentioned putting a shortwave receiver in the observatory for WWV time signals.  The receiver has two brightly illuminated displays, which would be a nuisance during dark nights.  I covered the displays with pieces of red automotive lens repair tape.  That should solve the problem (and it did, as I confirmed on 23 September).  I had previously used this tape to cover some AC adapter power-on indicator lights.  If you have lights in your observatory or at your telescope that you want to tone down, get some of this tape at your local automotive supply store.  It works well.

Also, I received a Carina Mobile “SkyFi” on Tuesday.  And of course, it was cloudy.  But that gave me a chance to work with it indoors with one of my ETX telescopes.

Thursday, 23 September, it was mostly clear, with a few clouds to the west.  I opened the observatory at 1810 MST, 89°F.  I set up my Meade ETX-105PE with SkyFi and MacBook Pro outside the observatory (photo above).  I would be testing the SkyFi with the ETX and 8” LX200-ACF telescopes from my computer and the iPhone 3GS.

After setting up, I viewed Venus in the 8” telescope at 77X; nice crescent phase.  I then began waiting for the sky to get darker.  At 1850 MST, I powered on the ETX-105PE and SkyFi and began controlling the ETX from the MacBook Pro and iPhone via Wi-Fi.

At 2014 MST, I ended the ETX tests and connected the SkyFi to the LX200-ACF:

I completed the testing at 2142 MST.  I then viewed Jupiter in the 8” at 77X one last time for the night.  I had briefly viewed it several times from both telescopes during the SkyFi testing.  The four Galilean Moons were in a very compact configuration this night.  Then went to the moon.  (Also viewed frequently during the SkyFi testing.)  It was just past full and very bright, with little terminator visible.  I did some terminator region observing at 206X in the 8”.

Lastly, I checked out the shortwave receiver.  The red tape definitely reduced the brightness of its display, while still allowing the displays to be read.

Closed the observatory at 2200 MST, 70°F.

I hope to post a lengthy review of the SkyFi Wi-Fi adapter in a few days.  Stay tuned.