Saturday, 21 January 2023, was clear but the observatory was not opened. With snow in the forecast, Sunday morning, 22 January, I put the Dome Cover ON. The snow arrived Monday morning, 23 January, but there was only about 1/4" accumulation (0.01" water measured). The sky cleared on Tuesday, 24 January, and I removed the Dome Cover.

Open: Tuesday, 24 January 2023, 1821 MST Temperature: 35°F

Session: 1822 Conditions: Clear

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

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

D850 DSLR photo (f/5.6, 1/10sec, ISO 1600) of the crescent Moon with Earthshine and Venus and Saturn (lower right corner).

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

Viewed the Moon, 102X.

Mounted the D850 at prime focus and took these photos of the Moon (1/250sec and 4 seconds, ISO 400).

1858 MST: High Precision ON.

Focused on Rigel, locked the 12" mirror, and slewed to NGC779 (galaxy).

1905 MST: StarLock ON.

Began imaging more Herschel 400 Catalog objects, StarLock autoguided, 5 minutes, ISO 3200, White Balance 4550K.

NGC779 (galaxy)


NGC891 (galaxy)


NGC908 (galaxy)


NGC936 (galaxy on right, two other galaxies in image)

2001 MST: StarLock OFF.

2007 MST: LX600 OFF.

2010 MST: Viewed Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), 12x50 binoculars, very low in the northern sky. Only the coma was visible.

Close: Tuesday, 24 January 2023, 2022 MST Temperature: 33°F

Session Length: 2h 01m Conditions: Clear

2210 MST: Viewed Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), 7x50 binoculars. It was now higher in the northern sky. Still faint with only the coma visible, no tail visible.

Took these photos of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) using the D850 DSLR.

f/4.5, 8 seconds, ISO 25600, FL 70mm


f/5.6, 6 seconds, ISO 25600, FL 250mm

---

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