Cloudy skies returned on Saturday, 10 February 2018. That afternoon a soon-to-be SkyShed POD owner from Tucson came to see my POD. We had a great visit at my observatory. The sky cleared on Sunday, 11 February.

Open: Sunday, 11 February 2018, 1817 MST Temperature: 75°F

Session: 1201 Conditions: Mostly clear

Equipment Used:

Camera:
iPhone 8 Plus
D850 DSLR

After opening the observatory I did not power on the telescope. I went back outside of the observatory to find the best location to photograph the International Space Station (ISS) passing over Cassiopeia Observatory. I then set up the iPhone 8 Plus on a camera tripod using the Levenhuk Smartphone Adapter:

I began the wait for the pass to start (1909 MST).

1849 MST: clouds began increasing from the southwest.

1853 MST: clouds reached the zenith.

1910 MST: began the iPhone image of the ISS pass using the iOS app NightCap Camera (ISS mode, ISO 8448, 1/3sec, exposure duration 4m44s). A clip-on wide-angle lens was used on the iPhone.

After the ISS pass ended and by the time I removed the iPhone from the camera tripod, clouds were in most of the sky. This handheld D850 DSLR photo (f/2.8, 1/2sec, ISO 25600, FL 24mm) shows the contellations of Orion and Taurus and the Pleiades though some of the clouds:

I decided to close up the observatory.

Close: Sunday, 11 February 2018, 1941 MST Temperature: 60°F

Session Length: 1h 24m Conditions: Mostly cloudy

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