Cassiopeia Observatory

Venus, Lunar Straight Wall, Critters

Posted: 29 May 2012

As I walked out to the observatory Monday evening, 28 May 2012, I saw this little guy peaking out of his home:

Opened the observatory at 1806 MST, 98°F. The sky was clear and the wind calm. At 1811 MST, viewed Venus, 77X and 133X. Crescent is getting thinner. I then did some 8" prime focus imaging of Venus with the D7000 DSLR. I added a #21 Orange filter to reduce the atmospheric distortion. It seemed to help. I did some more prime focus + 2X Barlow Lens imaging. Seeing was not good enough for stacking but this single (cropped) frame from an HD video, 1/500sec, ISO 1600, desaturated to remove the orange color, was the best image:

This next image shows what an original full-frame HD video frame looked like:

At 1840 MST, I began viewing the moon, 77X, and at 1919 MST, took some prime focus + visual back D7000 DSLR images. This is a 1/320sec, ISO 500, image:

At 1934 MST, switched back to the star diagonal and did some lunar observing, 77X, 206X, and 364X. I then did some imaging of the Straight Wall. This (slightly cropped) image was taken using the "Hat Trick" method at ISO 400:

Ended imaging at 1954 MST. Viewed Saturn, 77X. Three moons were visible: Titan, Rhea, and Tethys. At 133X, I picked up Dione, close to the planet.

As I was preparing to close up the observatory, a Kissing Bug decided to visit:

I last saw Kissing Bugs in the observatory a week ago. I sprayed on Tuesday, 22 May, in the hopes of keeping them away. It seemed to work for a week. I really don't want them visiting. Kissing Bugs are blood sucking insects about an inch long. The bug in the photo is no longer with us.

Closed the observatory at 2021 MST, 71°F.

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