Open: Friday, 14 October 2016, 1804 MST Temperature: 90°F

Session: 1023 Conditions: Mostly clear

Equipment Used:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
Wireless AutoStar II handset
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece

Camera:
D7200 DSLR

1806 MST: Moonrise over the hill east of Cassiopeia Observatory.

LX600 ON, StarLock OFF. High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X. Slight gibbous phase visible.

1813 MST: viewed Saturn, 102X. Cassini Division and the moon Titan were visible. No other moons visible due to bright twilight sky.

Then viewed Mars, 102X. Small disk but a prominent dark surface feature was visible near the center of the gibbous disk.

1818 MST: began preparing to do a One Star Alignment on the 12" LX600 telescope. Also checked the counterweight balance with the D7200 DSLR at prime focus + focal reducer; it was good enough. After the alignment was finished did GOTOs to M13 (Great Globular Cluster in Hercules) and M31 (Andromeda Galaxy). Both were visible in the 2" 24mm UWA eyepiece (102X) field-of-view (FOV).

1834 MST: viewed the waxing gibbous Moon, 102X. A slight terminator was visible a little more than 24 hours before the "Super Moon" Full Moon.

1845 MST: began setting up to photograph the "Moon on Dome" using the D7200 DSLR with an 8mm fisheye lens. Here are two photos taken from different locations, f/5, 10 seconds, ISO 1600. Click or tap on the photos to see larger versions.

Yes, those are stars visible in the sky.

1908 MST: ended fisheye photography and mounted the DSLR on the 12" telescope at prime focus + focus reducer. Unfortunately, the Moon was too close to the Earth and the entire lunar disk would not fit in the camera FOV. Decided to use a 150-600mm lens on the D7200 DSLR to image the Moon.

1930 MST: final look at the Moon, 102X. LX600 OFF.

Mounted the D7200 DSLR with a 150-600mm lens on a camera tripod. Took this photo (cropped) with the colors more saturated, f/6.3, 1/400sec, ISO 100, FL 600mm:

Click or tap on image for larger version

Close: Friday, 14 October 2016, 1953 MST Temperature: 73°F

Session Length: 1h 49m Conditions: Clear

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