Saturday, 23 April, it was cloudy, so I did a little project.  Many times when I've been in the observatory, I have wanted to do some timed sky exposures with the DSLR but my camera tripod has been in the house.  Yes, I could walk the 150' to the room where the tripod is or keep a camera tripod in the POD.  I elected to do something else.  Like many people, I had an old tripod with (now) flimsy legs.  But it had a good center post with a camera mounting head.  The SkyShed POD has small holes on the top of POD walls that just begged to be used for something.  As it turned out, the tripod center post almost perfectly fits into the holes and provides a reasonably stable platform for timed exposures of the sky with my Nikon D7000 DSLR.  The photo above shows the “monoPOD” mounted on the POD wall.  Now I have a camera mount, a real monoPOD, that I will keep in the observatory.  It only had to wait for a real test, which I was finally able to do on Tuesday, 26 April.

Clouds and strong winds kept me out of the observatory (except for the monoPOD daytime test above) until Tuesday night, 26 April.  I opened the observatory at 1808 MST, 83°F.  The sky was clear but hazy (due to dust in the air), and strong winds continued.  I delayed opening the dome and waited for the wind to subside.  While waiting, I noticed that the observatory had a new visitor:

This is the first scorpion I’ve seen in the observatory.  This one was caught in the spider trap and was dead (as were the two spiders).

I opened the dome at 1849 MST; there was still a strong breeze blowing.  At 1904 MST, the sun set and the breeze died down.  I powered up the telescope at 1933 MST and went to the Right Ascension and Declination of T Pyx (a recurrent nova that is currently in its outburst phase).  I then began waiting for the sky to darken.  I switched from the star diagonal to the visual back so that the view in the eyepiece would match the photograph of T Pyx that I used as a star chart.  I positively identified T Pyx at 2007 MST; wow, it was bright in the 26mm eyepiece.

I then set up the monoPOD with the D7000 DSLR to photograph a pass of the NanoSail-D satellite.  The pass occurred 2030-2035 MST.  During the pass, the magnitude of the satellite varied a lot, from moderately bright (about Magnitude +2) to being invisible.  There was no “flaring” seen.  Two photographs, 38 and 35 seconds respectively, at ISO 500 with a f/3.5, 18mm lens, showed the NanoSail-D and its changing brightness.  The first photograph shows the satellite (near the center) as it rose in the south.  Another satellite (on the right) is also visible in the exposure.  The second photograph shows the NanoSail-D in the east, moving northward.

I declared the monoPOD operational.  It will be very handy to have in the observatory.

At 2049 MST, I took a quick look at Saturn with the 26mm and 15mm eyepieces.  As expected, seeing was very bad.  Two moons of Saturn were visible but Saturn kept blurring out.  I took a quick look at M87; I had planned to photograph M87 in the hopes of getting a better image of its jet.  I decided to skip M87 imaging this night due to the poor seeing.  The wind started blowing again at 2057 MST.  I slewed to the Omega Centauri globular cluster and began waiting for it to rise high enough for imaging.  At 2139 MST, there were some strong wind gusts.  Omega Centauri was still not visible (it was behind a tree) so I slewed to M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules.  I mounted the D7000 DSLR piggyback on the 8” LX200-ACF and took some photographs at 300mm, f/4.5, 1 minute exposures, ISO 500.  Trailing was evident; guess I need to re-do the Drift Alignment for my wedge.

I returned to Omega Centauri and captured this image, 300mm, f/4.5, 30 seconds, ISO 1600.  The inset in the upper right shows a magnified view of the globular cluster.

Omega Centauri is very low in the sky from my location, hence the red tint.  A tree is just visible at the lower left.

I then imaged M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra, with the D7000 piggyback, 300mm lens, f/4.5, 1 minute, ISO 1600.  The inset at the upper right shows a magnified view of M57, which is seen unmagnified at the center of the image.

I returned to M13 and captured this image, D7000 piggyback, 300mm lens, f/4.5, 10 seconds, ISO 1600.  The inset at the upper right shows a magnified view.

The magnification of the Omega Centauri and M13 insets is the same for size comparison purposes.  These piggyback images were just an experiment to see how well the telephoto lens would do on DSOs.  I have done other piggyback images of DSOs that are more impressive, such as M31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda.

At 2305 MST, I took quick looks at M13 and M57 with the 26mm eyepiece.  I then went back to Saturn.  Seeing was a little better; I could now see three moons: Titan, Rhea, and Dione.  Tethys and Enceladus should have been visible but were not (due to the poor seeing).

Closed the observatory at 2325 MST, 57°F.

During all but the last hour of this session, the neighbor to the northeast had his bright floodlight on.  Maybe I should provide him with these brochures from the International Dark-Sky Association.

And speaking of light pollution and light nuisances, listen to this radio play from X Minus One, titled “A Thousand Dollars a Plate”.  The solutions these astronomers come up with are rather unique.

Since I was imaging globular clusters this night, the Dimension X radio play “Nightfall” is also appropriate (if you like Old Time Radio shows, as I do).