Sunday, 25 December 2022, was clear but I didn't open the observatory. Clouds arrived mid-morning on Monday, 26 December. With rain in the forecasts, I put the Dome Cover ON Tuesday morning, 27 December. Wednesday, 28 December, the rain arrived (0.2"). Late Thursday night, 29 December, had some more rain (0.12"), that continued (0.49") into Friday morning, 30 December. Cloudy skies continued on Saturday, 31 December.

On 29 December 2022, I posted two new ETX articles, "Finderscope Mount repair" and "Right Tube Adapter repair", on the Telescope Tech Tips page on Weasner's Mighty ETX Site.

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2022 was a busy year for me, especially with the months of preparation for and September's David H. Levy Arizona Dark Sky Star Party II & Oracle Dark Sky Cultural Festival, and a special visit in October to Mt Wilson Observatory with my wife Laurraine and niece Linda to look through the historic 60" telescope.

Here are some other highlights:

As I have said before, I worked in the Indiana University Astronomy Department Asteroid Program as an undergraduate student in Astrophysics 1966-70. During that experience I developed a love for asteroids. In 2022 I continued to photograph asteroids. You can see the images on the Asteroids & Dwarf Planets Astrophotography Album.

I published three reviews in 2022:

    Star Mentor: Hands-On Projects and Lessons in Observational Astronomy for Beginners (book)
    MilkyCam Raw Nocturne (iOS app)
    WaveletCam: Image Processing (iOS app)

I was on several Internet shows during the year. See the Cassiopeia Observatory Videos page to view the videos. I was also on the Arizona State Parks & Trails podcast (Season 3 Episode 14): Starstruck by Arizona's Dark Skies.

When the weather cooperated I was able to do some observing. I began a new project on 18 October 2022 to observe and photograph objects in the Herschel 400 Catalog. As 2022 ends I have observed and photographed 62 objects. I took a total of 2060 photographs during sessions at the observatory. Here is my 2022 Montage.

Click for larger version

This table and graph show the total number of sessions and hours I spent in the observatory during 2022 and prior years.

In case you missed it, here is the new video trailer for my book Finding my Way to the Stars.

Click to play video

So ends my 26th year of documenting my astronomical activities online and my 13th year at Cassiopeia Observatory.

My best to everyone in 2023!

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