The "ice spike" that formed in one of our bird baths before sunrise on Saturday, 29 December 2018, was still there Sunday morning, 30 December:

The year ended with cloudy skies with snow in the forecast, so my final report for 2018 is the Year End Report. I made no significant upgrades to the observatory this year although I did purchase or receive some equipment. Here is the complete list of product reviews I did in 2018:

Astrophotography with the Nikon D850 DSLR
Orbitrack iOS App
Astrophotography with the Nikon Coolpix P900
Supernova Search Atlas and Guide
Observatory for macOS
Tele Vue 2" 4X Powermate
ScopeStuff LX600 12" Primary Mirror Lock
Meade Smartphone Adapter
Orion Dual Mount & 9x50 Illuminated Finder Scope
Meade Stella Wi-Fi Adapter
Astrozap Meade 12 SCT Flexible Dew Shield
Meade LED Headlamp

Here is a table and graph showing the total hours and number of sessions I spent in the observatory during 2018 and prior years:

I took a total of 2778 photos in 2018. Here is the 2018 annual montage showing some of the highlights:

Click or tap on image for larger version

Two anticipated events in 2019 will be the Total Lunar Eclipse on Sunday, 20 January, and the Transit of Mercury on Monday, 11 November. On to 2019!

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