Friday, 21 April 2023, was partly cloudy. I didn't open the observatory that night for two reasons: the clouds and I would be at Oracle State Park all day on Saturday, 22 April, for the Earth Day and International Dark Sky Week Celebration.

Open: Sunday, 23 April 2023, 1820 MST Temperature: 74°F

Session: 1856 Conditions: Mostly clear

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

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max
D850 DSLR

1826 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench. It was a nice way to relax after spending 12 hours at Oracle State Park the day and night before.

1856 MST: Back in the observatory. Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging.

1901 MST: Sunset.

1902 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X. Viewed the Moon, 102X.

1905 MST: Returned to relaxing on the bench. Saw a quail family from the bench.

1944 MST: The crescent Moon, Earthshine, the planet Venus, and the observatory. Taken with the iPhone 13 Pro Max (Night Mode, 2 seconds, 1X lens).

1945 MST: Back inside the observatory. Took this handheld iPhone 13 Pro Max afocal 102X image of the Moon using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/710sec, 1X lens).

1953 MST: High Precision ON.

Slewed to NGC2964 (galaxy), which would be the first Herschel 400 galaxy imaged this night.

1955 MST: Dome OFF.

1957 MST: NGC2964 faintly visible, 102X. Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused on Regulus, locked the 12" mirror, and slewed to NGC2964.

2012 MST: StarLock ON.

Imaged the following Herschel 400 galaxies, StarLock autoguided, 5 minutes exposure, ISO 3200.

NGC2964


NGC2974 and satellites


NGC2976


NGC2985

I used the new Denoise function in the latest release of Adobe Lightroom Classic. It did a nice job reducing the digital noise in the Raw images. I have now observed and imaged 180 Herschel 400 Catalog objects. I will resume observing and imaging more Herschel 400 objects following the Full Moon in May.

2037 MST: Dome ON (between the 2nd and 3rd images).

2104 MST: StarLock OFF.

2109 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Sunday, 23 April 2023, 2117 MST Temperature: 64°F

Session Length: 2h 57m Conditions: Mostly clear

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