Moon with iPhone
Monday evening, 10 January, the sky was mostly clear, with a band of clouds along the western horizon. The moon was surrounded by a thin haze. But I opened the observatory anyway at 1810 MST, temperature 51°F. Five minutes later I viewed Jupiter at 77X with the 8” telescope. The four Galilean Moons were nicely configured to one side of the planet. The reforming SEB was not visible on the hemisphere of Jupiter that was visible this night. I then briefly viewed the moon at 77X. The moon was close above Jupiter, as seen in this photo taken with the D7000 DSLR, 1/30sec, ISO 500, focal length 70mm:
I set up for afocal imaging of the moon through the 8” telescope with the iPhone 4. The image at the top of the page was taken using a 26mm eyepiece plus a focal reducer and moon filter. The brighter portions of the moon still overexposed. Here are three images with the iPhone, 9mm eyepiece (222X) + moon filter:
And four images with the iPhone, 9mm eyepiece + 3X TeleXtender (666X):
I also imaged Jupiter with the iPhone, 9mm eyepiece + moon filter. The best image was this frame from a movie:
I ended imaging and viewed Jupiter with a 5.5mm eyepiece (364X). Seeing was not very good. Then I viewed Uranus with the 26mm and 5.5mm eyepieces; the disk was visible with both. My last viewing of the night was a tour of the lunar terminator with the 5.5mm eyepiece. The poor seeing did not allow a higher magnification. During brief moments of good seeing, the view along the terminator was very nice.
Closed the observatory at 1935 MST, 41°F.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011