Tuesday, 9 February 2021, was cloudy. Cloudy skies continued until Thursday, 11 February. I went to the observatory Thursday morning to try to observe a daytime close conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter.

Open: Thursday, 11 February 2021, 0827 MST Temperature: 43°F

Session: 1594 Conditions: Clear

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

Camera:
iPhone 11 Pro Max

0830 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

0835 MST: Wi-Fi Adapter ON.

Used SkySafari 6 Pro on the iPhone 11 Pro Max to GOTO Venus. The app has more up-to-date positions for planets than the telescope AutoStar computer.

Viewed Venus, 102X. A bright, nearly full disk was visible. Did a SkySafari GOTO to Jupiter. It was very faintly visible, 102X. Slewed to both planets in the same field-of-view (FOV). Neat view. Separation at that time was 25' 59".

0847 MST: Switched to the 2" 30mm eyepiece and viewed both planets in the same FOV, 81X. Added attached the Astrozap Flexible Dew Shield to the 12" telescope to increase sky contrast. It helped to improve the visibility of Jupiter.

0841 MST: Wi-Fi OFF.

Mounted the iPhone on the 30mm eyepiece using the Levenhuk Smartphone Adapter.

0850 MST: iPhone 11 Pro Max afocal 81X image of Venus and Jupiter, separation 26' 01", taken with the iOS app NightCap Camera (ISO 32, 1/19000sec, 1X lens).

Mouseover or tap on image for labels

0901 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Thursday, 11 February 2021, 0907 MST Temperature: 52°F

Session Length: 0h 40m 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