Friday, 3 February 2023, was cloudy. The sky was clear on Saturday, 4 February.

Open: Saturday, 4 February 2023, 1708 MST Temperature: 87°F

Session: 1830 Conditions: Mostly clear

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

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max

I opened the observatory early to prepare for two visitors to the observatory.

1730 MST: Cyrus and Patrick arrived. I gave them some background about the observatory and talked about using the 12" LX600 telescope.

1758 MST: Sunset.

1810 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

We viewed the planets Venus and Jupiter, 102X.

We then viewed M42 (the Great Nebula in Orion), 102X. Although the bright, nearly Full Moon, hampered the view of the nebula, the Trapezium star cluster looked very nice.

Next we viewed the Moon, 102X. I showed how I did my "Moon on Dome" photographs. This handheld iPhone 13 Pro Max photo was taken with the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens) at 1922 MST.

I then demonstrated how to take an afocal image of the Moon through the telescope using the iPhone. I used NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/5900sec, 1X lens), afocal 102X, handheld.

They both then tried to take photos of the Moon using their iPhones.

1941 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro on the iPhone to GOTO Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). We viewed the comet, 102X. Thin clouds and the bright Moonlit sky intereferred.

2041 MST: Visitors left.

2043 MST: Wi-Fi OFF.

I took a final look at the comet, 102X.

2045 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Saturday, 4 February 2023, 2055 MST Temperature: 53°F

Session Length: 3h 47m Conditions: Partly cloudy

---

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