Clouds returned Sunday night, 29 December 2019, and continued through 31 December. And so ends 2019 and my 10th year in Cassiopeia Observatory.

I was a panelist at the Westercon 2019 Science Fiction Convention in Utah where I spoke on Light Pollution. I was a guest speaker at the First Annual Davy H. Levy Star Party and talked about the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) "International Dark Sky Places" Program. I was also a panelist at the IDA 2019 Annual General Meeting to discuss combating Light Pollution. In addition to my being a Meade Brand Ambassador, in November 2019 I was selected as an Explore Alliance Ambassador. And I was honored to be awarded with the Indiana University Bicentennial Medal in October 2019.

Some other highlights from 2019:

Total Lunar Eclipse
SpaceX Starlink Satellites
Casa Grande Dispatch interview
Planetary Society LightSail 2 satellite photo
Transit of Mercury
ISS-Moon transit

When I was an undergraduate student in Astrophysics at Indiana University, 1966-70, I worked in the Astronomy Department Asteroid Program for several hours each week during all four years. During that experience I gained a love for asteroids. One of the things I enjoy doing at Cassiopeia Observatory is to photograph asteroids named for my professors and friends. This year I was able to photograph Asteroid (1602) Indiana, named for my home state and Indiana University.

I published nine reviews in 2019:

Vello Extendá Plus Wi-Fi Camera Controller
Meade StarPro™ AZ 102mm Refractor
Phone Skope digiscoping adapter
Avangard Optics NVGM1Pro 1x26 Night Vision Monocular
ScopeStuff Counterweight Bar Accessory Mount for GEM Mounts
ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector
ScopeStuff Dovetail Bar for ETX Telescopes
Meade Bahtinov Focusing Mask, 12"
Optolong SHO Narrowband Filters, Starizona Filter Slider

Here is a table and graph showing the total number of sessions and hours I spent in the observatory during 2019 and prior years:

Cloudy skies and an extended power outage in the observatory, along with some travel, contributed to the significant reduction in observing sessions in 2019 from previous years.

I took a total of 2036 photos in 2019. Here is the 2019 annual montage showing some of the photographs:

Click or tap on image for larger version

Clear Skies to everyone in 2020!

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