As I have mentioned on previous reports, I am helping the Oracle Mountain Vista School with its Summer Model Rockets Program. The students have completed a bunch of rockets which we hope to launch on Tuesday, 25 June.

Open: Monday, 24 June 2019, 1920 MST Temperature: 91°F

Session: 1367 Conditions: Clear

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

1928 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

1930 MST: viewed Mercury, low in the western sky, 102X and 203X.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for prime focus imaging, then mounted it at prime focus + 2X Powermate.

1938 MST: sunset.

Took this full-frame image of Mercury, 1/200sec, ISO 1000. The inset shows a magnified view of the planet:

Did a video recording (2180p, 30fps), 1/640sec, ISO 2000, at prime focus + 2X Powermate. This is a stack of 584 frames (19 seconds) using Lynkeos:

1946 MST: ended imaging.

1952 MST: last look at Mercury for this session.

1953 MST: viewed Jupiter, low in the southeast, 102X and 203X. Four moons were visible. The not-so-Great Red Spot was visible. The Great Red Spot is definitely not the splendid object it was a few decades ago.

2003 MST: last look at Jupiter, 102X.

As the next day would be a long day of (hopefully) launching several rockets at the local school, I began closing up the observatory.

2004 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Monday, 24 June 2019, 2016 MST Temperature: 83°F

Session Length: 0h 56m Conditions: Clear

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My review of the Phone Skope digiscoping adapter has been republished in the current issue (Vol 13, Issue 2) of Astronomy Technology Today magazine.

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