Opened: Tuesday, 2 September 2014, 1811 MST Temperature: 106°F

Session: 716 Conditions: Clear, some breezes

1818 MST: viewed the just past First Quarter Moon, 83X. The crater Clavius on the terminator was fascinating. The rims of the interior smaller craters were illuminated by the rising sun and really stood out against the floor of Clavius. Began setting up for iPhone 5s afocal imaging through the 8" LX200-ACF before the scene changed. Mounted the iPhone using the modified MX-1 Afocal Adapter.

This is the moon taken at 1828 MST, 77X. The inset is a magnified view of Clavius from the same photograph.

I then added the TeleVue 2X PowerMate to yield 154X for this photo taken at 1831 MST showing the southern region including Clavius:

1834 MST: resumed lunar observing, 222X, and began monitoring sunrise at Clavius. 1844 MST: "stars" began appearing inside Clavius as high spots on the interior craters began catching the sun's rays. It was really neat to watch this.

1848 MST: sunset (at Cassiopeia Observatory). Seeing was getting worse; more "boiling" was seen while monitoring Clavius. 1855 MST: ended monitoring to start imaging again.

Due to the deteriorating seeing, only managed to get one good photograph of Clavius at this time. Took this (cropped) 154X photo at 1858 MST:

1912 MST: resumed lunar observing, 222X. Clavius was not as fascinating as earlier in the evening as the sun rose higher at Clavius.

1918 MST: viewed Mars, 222X. Other than its gibbous phase, no details seen. Checked Saturn, 222X. Although low in the sky with lousy seeing, Cassini Division, shadows, and four moons were seen.

1925 MST: took a final look at the moon, 83X. Began closing up. Just as I was about to leave the observatory I saw that I had had a visitor during the session:

He was about 2' from where I had been sitting at the telescope. He had disappeared shortly after posing for the photo.

Closed: Tuesday, 2 September 2014, 1939 MST Temperature: 85°F

---

Comments are welcome using Email. If you are on Twitter you can use the button below to tweet this report to your followers. Thanks.

Tweet

---

Previous report

Cassiopeia Observatory Home Page