Open: Saturday, 12 November 2016, 1648 MST Temperature: 82°F

Session: 1040 Conditions: Partly cloudy

Equipment Used:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
Wired AutoStar II handset
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 50mm eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 6s Plus

I opened the observatory a little early in order to do a couple of things inside the observatory:

1. I took some measurements for a cardboard mockup of an idea I have for a mirror focus lock add-on. Using the measurements I'll prepare the mockup to see if my idea is workable.

2. For some time I have needed to re-arrange the books and charts that I have in the observatory. Over the years the number of these has grown. As I pulled books and charts and other information from the shelves I placed them on the POD Zenith Table (PZT). The PZT is a great place to put stuff while in the observatory. I quickly came to realize that I actually need to re-do the spacing on the shelves; I will do that soon.

1715 MST: the waxing gibbous Moon rose over the hill to the east.

1723 MST: sunset. The clouds made for an interesting sunset, as seen in this panorama iPhone photo:

1727 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF. Removed the diagonal in order to more conveniently observe the Moon low in the sky. 1731 MST: began observing the Moon through thin clouds using 102X. Switched to a 2" 50mm eyepiece (49X). It provided a nice low magnification view of the Moon.

As it was obvious I would get very little observing done this evening due to the clouds, I decided to take a quick handheld iPhone afocal 49X photo of the Moon:

After that I began closing up for the night.

Close: Saturday, 12 November 2016, 1751 MST Temperature: 68°F

Session Length: 1h 03m Conditions: Partly cloudy

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Here's another great interview with Dustin and Ginny Gibson, the new owners of OPT.

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