Cassiopeia Observatory

iPhone: Jupiter, Moon Crater Archimedes

Posted: 20 January 2013

The sky was cloudy on Friday, 18 January 2013. The sky was clear on Saturday, 19 January, so the observatory was opened at 1744 MST (sunset), 68°F. There were some clouds low along the western horizon. Viewed Jupiter at 1752 MST, 77X and 222X. Four moons and the Great Red Spot were visible. Seeing was very good. I set up for imaging Jupiter using the iPhone 4 on the 8" LX200-ACF.

This image is a stack of 2158 frames (90 seconds) from a video recorded using FiLMiC Pro. Stacking was done using Keith's Image Stacker. The iPhone was mounted using the MX-1 Afocal Adapter at 444X + Moon Filter.

At 1818 MST, did Jupiter observing at 222X and 364X. Good views of the Great Red Spot and the surrounding area.

Then I went to the moon and did some observing at 77X and 222X. Selected the crater Archimedes for high magnification imaging (using the iPhone) as there were some neat shadows there.

Moon afocal 77X:

Crater Archimedes and shadows afocal 222X (cropped):

Resumed lunar observing, 364X, at 1845 MST. For the next 42 minutes, monitored sunrise on the central peaks of the crater Maginus. At 1927 MST, switched back to the 2" 9mm 100° eyepiece (222X) for some lunar terminator observing. Great views.

The observatory was closed at 1943 MST, 54°F.

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