Saturday morning, 23 June 2018, I was interviewed on the live radio show "Rosie on the House". For about 40 minutes we talked about Oracle State Park, my local IDA International Dark Sky Park, astronomy, light pollution, and more. The interview is available online for your listening pleasure. I was on during the 7 AM hour of show.

The daytime temperatures in Oracle have been over 100°F for several days. Saw this antelope squirrel Saturday morning. He knows how to stay cool in the shade!

Click or tap on image for larger version

Open: Saturday, 23 June 2018, 1859 MST Temperature: 84°F

Session: 1257 Conditions: Clear, breezy

Equipment Used:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
1.25" 9mm eyepiece

Camera:
D850 DSLR

1906 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X and 271X. Seeing not good.

1915 MST: viewed the waxing gibbous Moon, 102X. Viewed the craters Copernicus and Tycho, 271X.

1937 MST: sunset.

Viewed the Moon again, 102X.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus of the 12" telescope. The breezes had calmed down now.

Moon, 1/400sec, ISO 200:

Click or tap on image for larger version

Switched to eyepiece projection with the 9mm eyepiece (271X) for these images (cropped):br>

Crater Copernicus (1/320sec, ISO 2500)


Crater Tycho (1/200sec, ISO 1600)

I then decided to try some test video recordings using the D850 DSLR (DX, 1080p, 120fps) of Jupiter using eyepiece projection 271X. This is a stack of 84 video frames using Lynkeos, 1/160sec, ISO 2500:

I will do additional tests using eyepiece projection on the next session.

2015 MST: viewed Jupiter, 102X. Four moons were visible.

2022 LX600 OFF.

Close: Saturday, 23 June 2018, 2035 MST Temperature: 82°F

Session Length: 1h 36m Conditions: Clear

After I left the observatory I took this handheld photo of the Moon and Jupiter using the D850 DSLR with 150-600mm lens (f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 200, FL 320mm):

Click or tap on image for larger version

Jupiter is at the lower right.

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