Saturday, 5 February 2022, dawned clear but very windy. The wind calmed down mid-afternoon, but clouds appeared several hours earlier than forecast. Sunday, 6 February, was clear but windy at times. The wind became even stronger as sunset approached. Monday, 7 February, was clear and windy. Same for Tuesday, 8 February. Tuesday mid-day I gave a talk to the Lower San Pedro Collaborative on Dark Skies Initiatives.

I went to the observatory Tuesday afternoon since the wind had calmed down somewhat. I wanted to do some daytime imaging of the First Quarter Moon. There was a lot of smoke in the southern sky from a prescribed burn in the Coronado National Forest, as seen in this iPhone 13 Pro Max wide-angle photo.

Open: Tuesday, 8 February 2022, 1521 MST Temperature: 72°F

Session: 1718 Conditions: Clear, some smoke, breezy

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 30mm eyepiece
2" 2X Powermate
2" 4X Powermate

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max

After opening the observatory I did some stuff inside for awhile.

1654 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed the Moon, 102X and 81X.

Mounted the iPhone 13 Pro Max on the 2" 30mm eyepiece. Took this afocal 81X photo of the Moon in the bright blue sky using the iOS Camera app (1X lens). The image is mirror-reversed as seen in the eyepiece.

I then did these videos of the Moon as I slewed the telescope along the terminator. Click on the images to view the short videos.

Afocal 163X

Afocal 325X

1733 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Tuesday, 8 February 2022, 1745 MST Temperature: 62°F

Session Length: 2h 24m Conditions: Clear, calm

Sunset was interesting from the smoke that had moved to the western sky. This is a cropped iPhone photo (0.5X lens)

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I have updated my review of the Explore Scientific 7-n-1 Professional Weather Station.

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