Cassiopeia Observatory

Imaging: D7000 Moon, iPhone 4 Jupiter

Posted: 29 October 2012

Cassiopeia Observatory was opened Sunday, 28 October 2012, at 2038 MST, 66°F, clear sky and a very bright nearly Full Moon (~16 hours before exactly 100%). At 2044 MST, viewed the moon in the 8" telescope, 77X, using a moon filter. A very thin terminator was visible. Using the moon filter made for an outstanding view of the bright moon. I then did some lunar observing at 206X and 364X (without the moon filter). Some really nice views along the terminator.

I removed the diagonal, added the focal reducer and visual back. I then mounted the D7000 DSLR at prime focus and photographed the moon at various shutter speeds, ISO 100. This is 1/500sec, cropped, with saturation increased to show the lunar colors:

I then removed the focal reducer, attached the OPT Camera Adapter, and did some eyepiece projection (222X) imaging. This cropped image shows near the northern end of the terminator, "Hat Trick", ISO 200:

I ended lunar imaging at 2117 MST. I did some brief lunar observing through the diagonal, 206X. I then went to Jupiter, low in the east, and viewed it at 77X + moon filter. The four Galilean Moons were visible. I then did some viewing at 206X but Jupiter was too low in the sky for good viewing. By this time, the moon was very high in the sky. I could even read and write notes in my logbook by moonlight!

From 2128 MST to 2152 MST I did some product testing for an upcoming review.

At 2158 MST, I returned to Jupiter. I mounted the iPhone 4 for afocal imaging, 9mm eyepiece + moon filter + 3X TeleXtender (666X), MX-1 adapter. I did a 60 second video recording. During post-processing, I stacked the video using Keith's Image Stacker (1458 frames), with this result:

I then did some more Jupiter observing, 364X and 206X, followed by some lunar observing, 206X.

The observatory was closed at 2230 MST, 65°F.

Comments are welcome; use the Comments section below, or you can Email Me. Thanks.

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