Open: Friday, 20 January 2023, 1820 MST Temperature: 46°F

Session: 1821 Conditions: Mostly clear

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

1827 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, 102X.

Viewed M42 (Orion Nebula), 102X.

1834 MST: High Precision ON.

Viewed NGC651 (M76, Little Dumbbell Nebula, planetary nebula), 102X. It would be the first Herschel 400 Catalog imaging object this night.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging.

I then did some light tests of my new Opple Light Tester 3 Pro light meter. I will be using it for some International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) activities.

Next, I mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused, and locked the telescope primary mirror.

1905 MST: StarLock ON.

I took the following Herschel 400 Catalog images, StarLock autoguided, exposures 1, 2, or 5 minutes, ISO 1600 or ISO3200.

NGC651 (M76, Little Dumbbell Nebula, planetary nebula)


NGC869 (open star cluster)


NGC884 (open star cluster)


NGC615 (galaxy)


NGC720 (galaxy, satellite)


NGC772 (galaxy)

1959 MST: StarLock OFF.

Viewed NGC2024 (Flame Nebula), 102X.

2012 MST: LX600 OFF.

2018 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading.

Close: Friday, 20 January 2023, 2022 MST Temperature: 34°F

Session Length: 2h 02m Conditions: Clear, SQM 20.85

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Here are two very recent articles on Light Pollution:

Light pollution is skyrocketing
Citizen scientists report global rapid reductions in the visibility of stars from 2011 to 2022

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