Friday evening, 3 May 2024, before going to the observatory I participated in the Tuscon Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) General Meeting. I was one of eleven TAAA members who gave reports on their 8 April Total Solar Eclipse experiences. I talked about my Hometown Total Solar Eclipse Experience.

You can view the TAAA meeting on Facebook. I come on at 38:40 for about 5 minutes. There are several excellent eclipse experience reports so watch them all.

Open: Friday, 3 May 2024, 2044 MST Temperature: 75°F

Session: 1962 Conditions: Clear, hazy

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

2048 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging.

Viewed Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3), 102X. The coma and short tail were visible.

2058 MST: Dome OFF.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus + 2X Powermate, focused on the star Spica, and locked the telescope primary mirror.

2108 MST: StarLock ON, High Precision ON.

Began imaging Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. It took awhile to get the comet centered in the high magnification camera field-of-view. Autoguiding was not great due to the hazy sky conditions. I finally managed to get this StarLock autoguided, prime focus + 2X Powermate image (30 seconds, ISO 12800, cropped).

2126 MST: StarLock OFF.

Viewed Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, 102X.

2135 MST: Dome ON.

2136 MST: LX600 OFF.

2143 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

Close: Friday, 3 May 2024, 2146 MST Temperature: 67°F

Session Length: 1h 02m Conditions: Clear, hazy, SQM 20.85

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