On Tuesday, 7 April 2026, my audio interview at Star River went live. Check it out. It was fun to journey on the Star River with Astropotamus.

Open: Tuesday, 7 April 2026, 1814 MST Temperature: 86°F

Session: 2124 Conditions: Clear

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

Camera:
iPhone 15 Pro Max
D850 DSLR

SYNCed observatory clock to WWV time signal.

1824 MST: Dome Cover OFF.

Prepared the D850 DSLR camera for imaging.

1831 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed the planet Venus, 102X. A slight gibbous phase was visible.

1836 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench.

1850 MST: Sunset.

1945 MST: After watching the stars come out while relaxing outside of the observatory, I returned to inside the observatory. Slewed the 12" telescope to the star Regulus and SYNCed the AutoStar.

1952 MST: I stepped outside of the observatory and took this iPhone 15 Pro Max photo of the observatory showing Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades, and Venus (low right of the dome in the trees). Taken with the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens, handheld).

Back in the observatory I mounted the D850 camera at prime focus, focused on Regulus, and locked the telescope primary mirror.

1959 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro on the iPhone to GOTO Palomar 4 (globular cluster) to resume imaging for my Milky Way Globular Clusters Project.

2003 MST: StarLock ON.

Began doing StarLock autoguided imaging of Palomar 4 (globular cluster) at prime focus. Unfortunately, seeing was not very good and autoguiding was erratic. The only good image was this 2 minutes, ISO 6400, framing test image. The Mag. +14.2, size 1.3', cluster is left of center.

I will re-image it on a future session. I also tried imaging another globular cluster, but quickly gave up due to the poor seeing.

2048 MST: StarLock OFF, Wi-Fi OFF.

Viewed the Leo Triplet of Galaxies (M65, M66, NGC3628 Sarah's Galaxy), 102X.

Viewed M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy), 102X. The spiral arms of the main galaxy were nicely visible.

Viewed M81 (Bode's Galaxy) and then M82 (Cigar Galaxy), 102X. M82 showed some nice structure.

2107 MST: LX600 OFF.

2125 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading.

Close: Tuesday, 7 April 2026, 2128 MST Temperature: 66°F

Session Length: 3h 14m Conditions: Clear, SQM 20.91

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8 April 2026 is the 2nd anniversary of the Total Solar Eclipse 2024. Click the link to read my reports of all the fun I had in my hometown for the eclipse.

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