Open: Wednesday, 30 September 2020, 1808 MST Temperature: 84°F

Session: 1527 Conditions: Clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
1.25" 9mm eyepiece
2" 30mm eyepiece

Camera:
D850 DSLR
iPhone 11 Pro Max

1811 MST: sunset.

1813 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

1827 MST: viewed the planet Mercury, very low in the southwest sky, 102X. About a half-phase was visible.

I used Mercury to slightly adjust the alignment of both finderscopes.

1831 MST: viewed Jupiter and 3 moons, 102X. The shadow of the moon Callisto was in transit across the Jovian disk. Viewed Saturn and 2 moons, 102X.

1837 MST: began relaxing on the observatory patio bench to wait for the sky to get darker.

1905 MST: the nearly full Moon began to rise over the hill to the east.

1909 MST: back inside the observatory. Viewed Jupiter, 102X and 271X. The Callisto shadow transit was continuing.

Mounted the D850 DSLR on the 12" telescope for eyepiece projection imaging using the 1.25" 9mm eyepiece (271X). Took these images of Jupiter and Saturn using 1080p, 60fps, 60 seconds video recordings.

Jupiter (stack of 3639 frames, 1/80sec, ISO 1600)


Saturn (stack of 3648 frames, 1/60sec, ISO 6400)

1944 MST: removed the DSLR camera. Viewed the Moon through a tree, 102X. A very slight terminator was visible with the Moon less than 24 hours from precisely full.

1945 MST: relaxed on the bench again. Mars began to rise over the hill.

2011 MST: the Moon projected on the dome by the 12" telescope (102X) taken with the iPhone 11 Pro Max using the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens), handheld.

2016 MST: back inside the observatory. Viewed the Moon, 81X. Took this handheld, afocal 81X, iPhone image of the Moon using NightCap Camera (ISO 32, 1/400sec, 1X lens).

2021 MST: viewed Mars, 102X. It was too low in the sky for good viewing.

Relaxed on the bench while waiting for Mars to rise higher.

2132 MST: back at the 12" telescope. Mounted the D850 for eyepiece projection (271X) imaging of Mars. This is a stack of 3627 video frames (1/200sec, ISO 1600, 60 seconds).

2145 MST: ended imaging. For reference, the eyepiece projection images with the 9mm eyepiece had a slight increase in magnification vs. imaging at prime focus + 4X Powermate.

Viewed Mars, 271X and 102X.

2156 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Wednesday, 30 September 2020, 2207 MST Temperature: 75°F

Session Length: 3h 59m Conditions: Clear

---

Comments are welcome using Email. Twitter users can use the button below to tweet this report to their followers. Thanks.

Tweet

---

Previous report

Cassiopeia Observatory Home Page