Open: Tuesday, 5 April 2022, 1827 MST Temperature: 84°F

Session: 1746 Conditions: Clear, breezy

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

SYNCed observatory clock to WWV time signals.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging.

1839 MST: Dome OFF onto PZT .

1840-1901 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench.

1849 MST: Sunset.

1902 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Updated the two-line element (TLE) from Heavens-Above.com for the night's pass of the International Space Station (ISS).

Viewed the Moon, 102X. The 6th Magnitude star V1116 looked like it might be occulted by the Moon.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus. Took this photo (1/500sec, ISO 800) of the Moon.

I then began monitoring the Moon's approach to the star V1666 and took these photos (1/2sec, ISO 1600) showing the star and Earthshine.

1925 MST


1930 MST


1932 MST


1933 MST

Checked alignments of the two finderscopes for the upcoming ISS pass. Locked the 12" mirror. I was the ready for the ISS pass.

Relaxed on the bench for a few minutes.

As the ISS pass was about to begin I accidently pressed the AutoStar ENTER button to start tracking nine seconds too early. So tracking was not very good. I did a prime focus video recording (1080p, 30fps, 1/2500sec, ISO 2000) during the pass. Here are some images of the International Space Station from some video frames . During the early part of the pass the core of the station overexposed to bring out the solar panels. As the ISS approached the zenith, its visual perspective changed to view the solar panels edge-on.

2002 MST: High Precision ON.

Viewed M53 (globular cluster), 102X.

2010 MST: LX600 OFF.

2015 MST: Dome ON.

Close: Tuesday, 5 April 2022, 2020 MST Temperature: 64°F

Session Length: 1h 53m 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