Cloudy skies continued on Thursday, 8 June 2023. Although the sky was forecast to still be cloudy on Friday, 9 June, the sky cleared late in the afternoon.

Open: Friday, 9 June 2023, 1811 MST Temperature: 82°F

Session: 1884 Conditions: Mostly clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 4X Powermate
VPF1 filter

Camera:
D850 DSLR
iPhone 13 Pro Max

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

Viewed Venus, 102X. Then viewed Venus, 406X + Variable Polarizer Filter 1. Nice views.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus + 4X Powermate + Variable Polarizer Filter 1. Took this image of Venus (1/400sec, ISO 1600). It is cropped to the same scale as my previous Venus filter imaging tests, but is otherwise unedited.

Did a 1080p, 60fps, video recording of Venus, prime focus + 4X Powermate + Variable Polarizer Filter 1 (1/400sec, ISO 1600). This is a stack of 1366 video frames.

1835 MST: I then began relaxing on the observatory patio bench. Clouds began increasing in the south through northwest.

1924 MST: Took this 180° panorama (north, east, south) using the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Click or tap on image for larger version

1933 MST: Sunset (time approximate due to the clouds along the western horizon).

2000 MST: Back inside the observatory.

A small visitor to the observatory walked across my observing logbook.

Click to view video

Slewed the 12" telescope to Regulus. Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus. Clouds were getting higher in the southern sky.

2009 MST: Returned to the bench while waiting for the sky to get darker. Continued to monitor the clouds.

2023 MST: Took this handheld iPhone photo of the sky showing stars, Mars, Venus, and some clouds using the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 0.5X lens).

Mouseover or tap on image for labels

2029 MST: Back inside the observatory. Focused on Regulus and locked the 12" telescope mirror.

2035 MST: High Precision ON.

Slewed to NGC3900 (galaxy) to begin imaging some Herschel 400 Catalog galaxies.

2038 MST: StarLock ON.

Autoguiding was not very good (clouds?) for the first two galaxies that were in the constellation of Leo and NGC3945 in Ursa Major. Had to shorten the exposure to 2 minutes at ISO 6400 and ISO 5000, respectively. The remainder of this night's imaging had better autoguiding (clouds less a factor) so used 5 minutes at ISO 3200.

NGC3900 (galaxy)


NGC3912 (galaxy)


NGC3938 (galaxy)


NGC3941 (galaxy)


NGC3945 (galaxy)


NGC3949 (galaxy)

2156 MST: StarLock OFF.

Viewed NGC3628 (Sarah's Galaxy), 102X.

2206 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Friday, 9 June 2023, 2216 MST Temperature: 63°F

Session Length: 4h 05m Conditions: Mostly clear

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