Mid-day on Tuesday, 11 April 2023, the sky began clouding up. It almost looked like Summer Monsoon Season. The sky finally cleared on Friday, 14 April.

Open: Friday, 14 April 2023, 1812 MST Temperature: 62°F

Session: 1851 Conditions: Mostly clear, breezy

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 5.5mm 100° eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max
D850 DSLR

1820 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X and 443X. Nice gibbous phase visible.

Attached the LiDAR Cover on the iPhone 13 Pro Max and mounted the iPhone on the 5.5mm eyepiece using the Levenhuk adapter. Took this afocal 443X image of Venus using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/2500sec, 1X lens).

This is a stack of 910 video frames taken with NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/4082sec, 1X lens).

1841 MST: I then began relaxing on the observatory patio bench.

1853 MST: Sunset.

There were some clouds in the northern sky.

1912 MST: Back inside the observatory. Viewed Mercury, 102X and 443X. A "fat" crescent phase was visible.

I then viewed the Trapezium star cluster in M42 (Orion Nebula), 102X.

1915 MST: The strong breezes had calmed down now. Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging of some Herschel 400 open star clusters.

1924 MST: High Precision ON.

Slewed to NGC2479 (open cluster), which would be the first cluster to image this night. It was not yet visible in the twilight sky.

1944 MST: NGC2479 was now faintly visible, 102X. Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused on the star Sirius using a Bahtinov Mask, locked the 12" mirror using the ScopeStuff mirror lock, and then slewed to NGC2479.

2003 MST: StarLock ON.

Took the following Herschel 400 open cluster images, StarLock autoguided, 1 minute, ISO 1600.

NGC2479 (and satellite)


NGC2482


NGC2489


NGC2506


NGC2509


NGC2527


NGC2539


NGC2548 (M48)


NGC2567


NGC2571


NGC2627

2100 MST: StarLock OFF.

Spring is "Galaxy Season". Of the next 202 Herschel 400 Catalog objects, 192 are galaxies. I observed four of them this session, 102X: NGC2613, NGC2655, NGC2681, and NGC2683.

2119 MST: LX600 OFF.

2125 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

Close: Friday, 14 April 2023, 2133 MST Temperature: 54°F

Session Length: 3h 21m Conditions: Clear, SQM 21.02

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