Friday morning, 22 November 2024, I helped out a friend. He had two ETX AutoStar #497 handcontrollers that needed to have the firmware updated. I cloned one of my handcontrollers with firmware 4.3Eg (the best version to my mind) to his two handcontrollers. I hadn't done a clone operation in two decades so it was fun doing it once again.

Friday afternoon unforecast clouds came in, but after sunset the sky conditions improved.

Open: Friday, 22 November 2024, 1814 MST Temperature: 73°F

Session: 2041 Conditions: Mostly clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
Focal reducer

Camera:
D850 DSLR

1822 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision ON.

Viewed Venus and then Saturn, 102X.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging. Mounted the camera at prime focus + focal reducer, focused the image and SYNCed the AutoStar on the star Deneb, locked the telescope mirror, and slewed to the first object to image.

1841 MST: StarLock ON.

Imaged the following Barnard Objects (dark nebulae), StarLock autoguided, 30 seconds, ISO 6400.

As on the previous session, I had a pointing issue with these difficult Barnard Objects. Four other images that I took this session did not show the dark nebulae. I hope to finally resolve this issue on the next session.

1914 MST: StarLock OFF.

Observed, or tried to, the following Barnard Objects, 102X: B367, B164, B165, B368, B166, B167, B168, B198, B169, and B170.

1949 MST: High Precision OFF.

Viewed Jupiter, 102X.

2003 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

2012 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Friday, 22 November 2024, 2020 MST Temperature: 60°F

Session Length: 2h 06m Conditions: Mostly clear, SQM 20.83

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