ORACLE OBSERVATORY Last updated: 4 November 2005

After several days of the weather forecast varying from "Clear" to "Mostly Clear" to "Partly Cloudy", the forecast for 29 October finally settled on CLEAR SKIES! So off I went again to Oracle Observatory.

On this trip I took 105 photographs with the Nikon D70. Some were done at Prime Focus of my LXD55-8"SC and some were done with the camera piggyback on the LXD55-8"SC. Technical details are on my Nikon D70 DSLR Astrophotography page.

When I arrived at 1445 the temperature was 77°F but by 1900 it had dropped to 56°F. When I retired for the night at 0105 the temperature was 52°F.

As darkness fell, Venus was looming bright in the Southwest:

Next up was another round of M57, the Ring Nebula, photos, resulting in this one:

Then M31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, and its companion galaxies, M110 (to the left) and M32 (on the right, close to the edge of M31):

I then tried for and somewhat succeeded with M1, the Crab Nebula:

This is M42, the Great Nebula in Orion (single exposure):

This is M42, the Great Nebula in Orion (stack of 8 exposures):

Mars. This image is very close to what the eye saw through the telescope:

Cassiopeia, Double Cluster, Perseus, Pleiades, Mars (left to right):

All in all, a wonderful visit to Oracle Observatory. Until next time...

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