Open: Saturday, 1 July 2023, 1753 MST Temperature: 104°F

Session: 1901 Conditions: Clear, smokey

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 5.5mm 100° eyepiece
2" Variable Polarizing Filter 1
2" 30mm eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max

All day the western sky was smokey from the Beehive Fire near the Mexico border.

With all the recent air conditioner hot air duct issues in the observatory, I purchased a 6" hose clamp earlier in the day. After opening the observatory, I installed the hose clamp. Hopefully that will solve the problem for the rest of this hot Arizona summer. I still plan to replace the plastic hose later this year as it has become very brittle.

1819 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X and 443X.

1827 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench.

1908 MST: Back at the 12" telescope. Viewed Venus, 443X + Variable Polarizing Filter 1 (VPF1).

Mounted the iPhone 13 Pro Max on the 2" 5.5mm eyepiece. Took this afocal 443X + VPF1 image of Venus using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/450sec, 1X lens).

Then did a 10 seconds slo-mo (240fps) video recording, afocal 443X + VPF1, of Venus using the Camera app (1X lens). This is a stack of 1925 video frames).

1919 MST: Back to the bench while waiting for sunset.

1934 MST: The waxing gibbous Moon rose over the hill to the southeast.

1935 MST: Back inside the observatory.

1938 MST: Sunset.

Viewed Venus, 443X + VPF1 and 102X.

Viewed the Moon, 102X.

1944 MST: iPhone photo (0.5X lens) taken from inside the observatory showing the Moon over the hill.

Viewed the Moon, 81X.

1949 MST: Took this handheld iPhone afocal 81X image of the Moon using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/5900sec, 1X lens).

1951 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Saturday, 1 July 2023, 2002 MST Temperature: 87°F

Session Length: 2h 09m Conditions: Clear, smokey

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