Thursday, 20 June 2024, dawned cloudless, but windy with a dusty sky. I could even smell the dust when I went outside to put the Dome Cover on the observatory. In past years we never had dust visible at our elevation, but it is now more common.

By mid-day, the sky was mostly cloudy (cumulus). Mid-afternoon even had a very brief but hard rainshower (0.04") from thundershowers in the area. Friday, 21 June, was more of the same, with some brief thundershowers in the area (no rain here). There was a nice sunset Friday evening.

Saturday, 22 June, had brief thundershowers (0.08"). There was a small rainbow arc as sunset approached.

Sunday, 23 June, was cloudy all day, but there was no rain.

Sunday evening at 2047 MST (about an hour after sunset), Space X launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Clouds prevented viewing all but the initial portion of the launch. Here's a short video taken with the iPhone 15 Pro Max (1X lens) showing the launch with the first stage and then second stage firing. There is also some lightning.

Click to view video

This iPhone photo taken with the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens) shows the launch contrail.

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