Open: Monday, 18 June 2018, 1855 MST Temperature: 81°F

Session: 1252 Conditions: Clear, breezy

Equipment Used:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
1.25" 15mm eyepiece
2" 2X PowerMate

Camera:
iPhone 8 Plus
D850 DSLR

1903 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, then the Moon, 102X. Viewed Jupiter, 102X and 163X.

A Curved Bill Thraster (upper right) and a Phainopepla (lower left) came to visit.

1937 MST: sunset. Calm now.

Mounted the iPhone 8 Plus on the 15mm eyepiece. Did some video recordings of Jupiter. This is a stack of 464 video frames afocal 163X taken with NightCap Camera (ISO 100, 1/706sec, 15 seconds):

This is how the Moon looked, D850 DSLR (f/5.6, 1/800sec, FL 300mm), cropped:

I then mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus + 2X PowerMate. I wanted to capture sunrise at the lunar craters of Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina with an image every 20 minutes over a 2 hour period 2000-2200 MST.

While I was imaging the Moon this spider caught her dinner:

Here are the craters Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina (1/320sec, ISO 2500). Seeing was not very good at times when I was imaging.

Click or tap on image to view video

2031-2128 MST: terminated three Kissing Bugs.

2204 MST: ended lunar imaging. Began checking some galaxies for imaging this night for my Extragalactic Supernova Project. I wanted to be certain the Moon light would not interfere too badly. I viewed M88, M91, M90, M58, M94, and M64, 102X. All were visible. Mounted the D850 at prime focus, focused on the star Denebola.

2221 MST: High Precision ON, StarLock ON.

Took these StarLock autoguided, 5 minutes, ISO 6400, White Balance 4550K, images:

NGC4501 (M88)


NGC4548 (M91)


NGC4569 (M90)


NGC4579 (M58)


NGC4736 (M94)

2356 MST: StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF. Poor seeing frequently caused autoguided issues while imaging these galaxies. Had to stop and restart several of the exposures.

0006 MST: viewed Saturn, 102X and 163X. Seeing definitely not good.

Viewed Mars, low in the southeast, 163X and 102X. Seeing lousy.

0011 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Tuesday, 19 June 2018, 0023 MST Temperature: 69°F

Session Length: 5h 28m Conditions: Clear

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