Wednesday afternoon, 14 June 2023, I joined Scott Roberts of Explore Scientific, and Sinda Sutton, the new Oracle State Park Manager, for an online chat about this Saturday's "Singalong and Star Party" at the Park.

Click the image to view the video (23 minutes)

Open: Wednesday, 14 June 2023, 1818 MST Temperature: 87°F

Session: 1889 Conditions: Clear, windy

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
1.25" Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector
1.25" 9.7mm eyepiece
1.25" Light Pollution Reduction filter

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max
D850 DSLR

1823 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X. I then viewed Venus, 251X + Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC). Nice view.

1836 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench.

1919 MST: Back in the observatory. Viewed Venus, 251X + ADC. Took this handheld iPhone 13 Pro Max photo of Venus, afocal 251X + ADC, using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/600sec, 1X lens).

Next, I prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging Herschel 400 galaxies, assuming the strong wind calmed down.

1935 MST: Sunset. Wind calmer now. Viewed Venus, 251X + ADC. A really crisp view of the planet was seen.

1938 MST: Returned to the bench to watch the stars come out.

2000 MST: Back inside the observatory. Viewed Venus, 251X + ADC. Added the 1.25" Light Pollution Reduction (LPR) filter to reduce glare from the planet's brightness.

2007 MST: Back to the bench for a few minutes.

2025 MST: Back in the observatory. Calm now. Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused on the star Spica, and locked the 12" telescope primary mirror.

2036 MST: High Precision ON.

Slewed to NGC4216 (galaxy), the first of the 12 Herschel 400 galaxies I planned to image this session.

2040 MST: StarLock ON.

Took these StarLock autoguided, 5 minutes, ISO 3200, images.

NGC4216 (galaxy)


NGC4261 (galaxy)

When I began imaging NGC4273 (galaxy), the winds returned. Seeing and autoguiding was very bad. I only got one good image of the galaxy, 2 minutes, ISO 3200. Even with the short exposure, several other galaxies are visible in the image.

NGC4273 (galaxy) and friends

2120 MST: Paused imaging due to the wind. But I finally gave up.

2130 MST: StarLock OFF.

Since I could not do any more imaging, I decided to at least observe some more Herschel 400 objects, 102X, on this session: NGC4303 (M61, galaxy), NGC4314 (galaxy), NGC4346 (galaxy), NGC4350 (galaxy), NGC4361 (planetary nebula), NGC4365 (galaxy), NGC4371 (galaxy), and NGC4394 (galaxy).

2153 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Wednesday, 14 June 2023, 2202 MST Temperature: 72°F

Session Length: 3h 44m Conditions: Clear, windy

Unfortunately, the forecast for Thursday night, 15 June, is for the wind to be blowing again.

---

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