Saturday, 1 May 2021, was cloudy and yes, windy. Sunday, 2 May, dawned cloudy and windier. The sky cleared mid-morning, but the strong winds continued into the night. Monday, 3 May, was clear but hazy and windy (still). The wind died down about an hour after sunset.

Open: Monday, 3 May 2021, 2001 MST Temperature: 73°F

Session: 1630 Conditions: Clear, hazy

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

2006 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed NGC4244 (Silver Needle Galaxy), 102X.

2015 MST: dome OFF.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused on the star Arcturus, and locked the 12" telescope primary mirror using the ScopeStuff mirror lock. Slewed to NGC4244.

2025 MST: StarLock ON.

Did two framing test exposures. Then did six StarLock autoguided, 5 minute exposures, ISO 12800, White Balance 5560K. This is a stack of the six exposures (effective exposure 30 minutes).

NGC4244 (Silver Needle Galaxy)

2101 MST: StarLock OFF.

Viewed NGC4244 (Silver Needle Galaxy), 102X.

I then viewed the following Galaxy Trios, 102X:

NGC4326/4333/4339 (Mag. +13.3/13.6/11.6)
NGC5076/5077/5079 (Mag. +13.2/11.3/13.0)

Viewed NGC4169 (Mag. +13.3), 102X. This galaxy is the brightest of the four galaxies in the "Hickson 61" (The Box) group. I could never quite convince myself that I was able to see the other three fainter galaxies on this night. That could have been due to the "dirty" sky from all the recent winds.

Viewed M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy), 102X.

2146 MST: dome ON.

2147 MST: LX600 OFF.

2158 MST: took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

Close: Monday, 3 May 2021, 2201 MST Temperature: 62°F

Session Length: 2h 00m Conditions: Clear, hazy, SQM 21.08

---

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