Open: Sunday, 4 June 2023, 1810 MST Temperature: 89°F

Session: 1881 Conditions: Partly cloudy

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR
iPhone 13 Pro Max

1815 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Venus was at its Greatest Eastern Elongation today. Viewed Venus, 102X and 443X. The terminator looked like the planet was slightly less than 50% illuminated.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging.

I then began observing Venus, 443X, using some of my 2" filters. Here are the results.

2" UHC: Reduced glare from the bright planet disk.
2" SII: Planet dimmed too much for visual use.
2" Hydrogen-Alpha: Too dim for visual use but better than SII.
2" OIII: Reduced glare from bright planet disk.

Based on my 1.25" filter tests done on 3 June and this session's tests with the 2" filters, the 1.25" LPR and 2" UHC provided the best views of a half-illuminated Venus, 443X.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus + 2" 2X Powermate and did the following 2" filter test images, White Balance 4550K. The images are cropped from the full-frame images, but otherwise are not edited.

No filter (1/250sec, ISO 400)


UHC (1/250sec, ISO 400)


SII (1/250sec, ISO 4000)


HA (1/250sec, ISO 4000)


OIII (1/400sec, ISO 1600)

1902 MST: Finished the filter tests.

For imaging, the 1.25" Moon filter and the 2" UHC filter provided the best images. I neglected to do a test using one of the 2" Variable Polarizing Filters, so will do that on the next session.

1904 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench to monitor the clouds.

Setting Sun (iPhone 13 Pro Max Camera app, 3X lens).

1930 MST: Sunset.

1952 MST: Clouds increasing. Ended session.

1953 MST: LX600 OFF.

1959 MST: iPhone photo of the western sky with Venus.

Mouseover or tap on image for pointer to Venus

Close: Sunday, 4 June 2023, 2007 MST Temperature: 78°F

Session Length: 1h 57m 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