Flying Things, Lunar Straight Wall
Posted: 19 April 2013
As I headed out to the observatory Thursday evening, 18 April 2013, some new neighbors made an appearance:
Count the beaks. There are five baby birds crowded into the small nest.
Opened the observatory at 1818 MST, 73°F. The sky was clear and there was no breeze blowing this evening for a change. I first set up a trap for the Black Widow Spider that I saw in the observatory on Sunday, 14 April.
At 1833 MST, I powered on the 8" LX200-ACF telescope and viewed the moon using the 2" 24mm UWA eyepiece (83X). Seeing was very bad. A minute later I heard a loud jet flying over. It was not the typical high altitude airliner sound but more like a low flying military jet. I looked up and saw a B-1. I managed to get this (highly cropped) photo:
Beginning at 1855 MST, I did a lunar terminator tour using the 2" 9mm 100° eyepiece (222X). Seeing was still not good. Crater Moretus, near the moon's south pole, looked very interesting. Its central peak was shining like a star over the dark crater floor. At 1912 MST, took this photograph of the moon at prime focus using the D7000 DSLR, 1/400sec, ISO 400:
I then tried to image crater Moretus using eyepiece projection (222X), but seeing was not quite good enough to get a sharp image. I did manage to get this image of the Straight Wall, "Hat Trick" method, ISO 800:
Finished imaging at 1931 MST. Briefly viewed Jupiter and 3 moons, 83X. Then took a final look at the moon.
Closed the observatory at 1949 MST, 57°F.
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