Clouds returned on Friday, 23 January 2015. They prevented me from observing the Triple Transit of three Jovian Moons that night. Saturday dawned clear, which bode well for the stargazing event that night at Oracle State Park, the world's newest IDA "International Dark Sky Park". Unfortunately, clouds began appearing mid-morning. While the evening was partly cloudy, some excellent viewing was had by Park visitors. My report on the event is on the Oracle Dark Skies Committee web site. And what about the close pass of asteroid 2004 BL86 (357439) on Monday, 26 January? Clouded out. Cloudy skies continued through the week. A day of rain occurred on Friday, 30 January, totalling 1.54", and the rain continued on Saturday, 31 January, with another 0.39". Sunday, 1 February 2015, dawned with clearing skies.

Open: Sunday, 1 February 2015, 2043 MST Temperature: 50°F

Session: 773 Conditions: Clear, humid

2051 MST: began viewing Sirius at 364X using a #82A Blue Filter in an attempt to see Sirius B (the "Pup" Star). No luck this night.

2104 MST: viewed the waxing gibbous moon, 83X. Took this handheld iPhone 5s afocal photo:

Mounted the iPhone 5s on the 8" LX200-ACF using the modified MX-1 Afocal Adapter for afocal imaging at 444X. This image of the crater Pythagoras is one frame (cropped) from a slo-mo (120 fps) video:

Then slewed to Jupiter. This (not very good) photo shows Jupiter and three moons, iPhone afocal 444X:

This image of Jupiter is a stack of 1159 slo-mo frames using Keith's Image Stacker, afocal 444X:

The moon Io is just visible at the left.

2135 MST: did some Jupiter observing, 166X, then 83X. Seeing wasn't very good but occasionally could see some nice details on the planet's atmosphere.

Close: Sunday, 1 February 2015, 2157 MST Temperature: 48°F

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