Observatory was opened Thursday, 13 January, at 1805 MST, 60°F, to clear skies.  The sky was bright from the waxing gibbous moon, but there were no offending floodlights on at any of the neighbors.  As I reported last update, the neighbor to the north has had bright horizontally aimed floodlights ON during the night AND day.  The lights were still on well after sunrise on Thursday, 13 January, however, the lights were finally turned off mid-morning.  I haven't been able to contact them (due to their dogs) so I am unable to explain their reasoning at this time.

I first viewed Jupiter at 77X; four moons were visible but the reforming SEB was not visible.  I then set up to observe a pass of the International Space Station (ISS) in the 8” telescope.  Using the orbit data (TLE) from Heavens-Above, I entered the parameters into the AutoStar.  From 1823 to 1830 MST, I followed the ISS in the 8” at 77X.  During the first half of the long pass, the solar panels were a very bright gold color and the core of the station was a brilliant white.  During the second half of the pass, the solar panels and core were a bright white.  Details of the station were very distinct during this pass.  It was a great view.  I have previously captured video of an ISS pass as seen in the telescope using the iPhone.  This night’s pass would have made a great video.  I plan to try again to capture video of an ISS pass, but I’ll use the D7000 DSLR next time.

I then turned my attention to the moon.  It was very bright in the 26mm (77X) eyepiece.  I switched to the 5.5mm (364X) eyepiece and began looking for good imaging targets.  At 1853 MST, I set up for D7000 prime focus imaging.  I mounted the camera on the telescope and slewed the telescope to center the moon in the camera’s viewfinder.  And then the Wireless AutoStar II froze.  I turned the handcontroller off and replaced the rechargeable AA batteries with fully recharged batteries.  The old batteries had been in use since 22 November 2010, so I got a long run with them.  I powered on the handcontroller and pressed the MODE key; the AutoStar reconnected to the telescope.  I then began lunar imaging.

The image at the top of the page was taken at prime focus, 1/250sec, ISO 500.  The next two images were taken at prime focus + 3X TeleXtender, 1/125sec, ISO 1600:

The next image, showing the crater Copernicus, was taken at prime focus + 2X Barlow Lens + 3X TeleXtender, 1/10sec, ISO 1000:

During a break in imaging, I noticed that I could see M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, with my naked eyes, even though the sky was very bright from the moon, which was high overhead, and close to the galaxy.  Amazingly transparent sky this night.

I ended imaging at 2005 MST and began a visual tour of the lunar terminator at 364X.  I never tire of studying the terminator region and this night provided some great views, with some very nice details visible on the lunar surface.

After I finished with the moon, I slewed to Jupiter, low in the southwest sky, and viewed it at 364X.  Seeing was not too good at the low altitude, so I switched to the 9.7mm (206X) eyepiece.  Still no SEB visible.

I slewed to M42, the Great Orion Nebula, and viewed it at 77X.  Even with the bright sky, the nebula appeared very clearly and the Trapezium stars stood out nicely.  My last object was the star Sirius.  I viewed it through the 26mm eyepiece and handheld a diffraction grating over the eyepiece to view the spectrum of Sirius.  As with other stars, I could only see one Fraunhofer line.  I still plan to make (or buy) a spectroscope for use at the telescope, which should improve the spectrum appearance.

The observatory was closed at 2040 MST, 49°F.