Cassiopeia Observatory

Moon Imaging: iPhone at 77X, 222X, & 666X Magnifications

Posted: 31 July 2012

After my previous session on Thursday, 26 July 2012, the monsoon clouds and some storms returned. Not much rain fell here; only 0.08" on Saturday, 28 July, and 0.12" on Sunday, 29 July, but the skies were cloudy until Monday, 30 July, when some clearing occurred. The observatory was opened at 1906 MST, 92°F. There were some clouds along the western horizon as sunset approached, with some monsoon storms in the northeast. But the sky was mostly clear near the rising waxing gibbous moon.

A Harris's Hawk buzzed me a couple of times and landed in a nearby tree:

1921 MST, took a quick look at Saturn, 206X. I then went to the moon. Seeing was not very good so I only used 77X for observing while waiting for the moon to rise higher. There were some thin clouds around the moon. At 1943 MST, I was able to use 206X on the moon for some occasional nice views along the slight terminator. I then began setting up for lunar imaging with the iPhone 4 on the 8" LX200-ACF. I switched to the visual back and mounted the iPhone with the MX-1 afocal adapter.

Moon, 77X, cropped:

The southern polar region was the most interesting so I concentrated on imaging there. These are 222X, cropped:

These images are 666X, cropped:

I ended imaging at 2016 MST. There were thin clouds over much of the sky now and there was occasional lightning in the storms to the northeast.

Closed the observatory at 2029 MST, 79°F.

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