Cloudy skies returned on Thursday, 2 February 2017. That evening I attended the monthly meeting of the Oracle Dark Skies Committee. There were two special guests at this meeting: a writer for the New York literary magazine "Paris Review" who is doing research for an essay on dark skies and a dark skies researcher from Northwestern University. The sky mostly cleared on Saturday, 4 February.

Open: Saturday, 4 February 2017, 1736 MST Temperature: 83°F

Session: 1070 Conditions: Mostly clear

Equipment Used:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
Wired AutoStar II handset
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 9mm 100° eyepiece
2" 2X PowerMate
2" 30mm eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 6s Plus
D7200 DSLR

Upon arrival at the observatory the clouds were mostly low in the sky southeast-south-southwest. Decided to try Venus and Moon imaging if the clouds allowed.

1740 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF. Viewed Venus, 102X and 542X. The view of Venus was fairly steady at this time. This is how Venus appeared in the sky, surrounded by clouds (D7200 DSLR, f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 400, FL 140mm):

1759 MST: sunset.

Mounted the iPhone 6s Plus on the 12" telescope using the Levenhuk Smartphone Adapter. This is a stack of 913 afocal 542X video frames (30 seconds) taken with the iOS app NightCap Pro:

1807 MST: done with Venus imaging due to clouds and slewed the telescope to the Moon (D7200 DSLR, f/8, 1/25sec, ISO 400, FL 18mm):

This afocal 81X (2" 30mm eyepiece) was taken with the iPhone 6s Plus, Levenhuk adapter, NightCap Pro (ISO 25, 1/710sec):

1821 MST: ended imaging. I did not try any high magnfication imaging as the seeing was poor with the Moon in the clouds. In fact, clouds were now in most of the sky. Viewed the Moon, 81X and 102X.

1822 MST: LX600 OFF.

1835 MST: This is the sky with the Moon, Mars, Venus, and clouds, taken with the D7200 DSLR (f/3.5, 1/3sec, ISO 3200, FL 18mm), as seen from the observatory:

Mouseover or tap on image for labels

Close: Saturday, 4 February 2017, 1836 MST Temperature: 67°F

Session Length: 1h 00m Conditions: Mostly cloudy

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