Cloudy skies returned on Thursday, 9 April 2026, and continued until Tuesday, 14 April. I did not open the observatory that night due to an early morning commitment the next day.

Open: Wednesday, 15 April 2026, 1812 MST Temperature: 88°F

Session: 2126 Conditions: Clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
1.25" 12mm reticle eyepiece
1.25" 26mm eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 15 Pro Max
D850 DSLR

1818 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X and 203X.

I then did some telescope mount maintenance, which had not been done in a few years. I set the AutoStar II mount mode to Altitude/Azimuth (but did not chance the physical mount from equatorial). I then did a TRAIN DRIVES on radio antenna tower on Mt Lemmon (about 11 miles away) using the 12mm reticle eyepiece (203X). I then set the AutoStar back to Polar mode.

1852 MST: Sunset.

Prepared the D850 DSLR camera for imaging later.

1913 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench while waiting for some stars to appear in the twilight sky.

1926 MST: Back in the observatory I did a Polar One Star Alignment on the AutoStar.

Viewed Jupiter and three Galilean Moons, 203X.

1948 MST: Took this handheld iPhone 15 Pro Max photo using the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens). Orion, Hyades, and the Pleiades are visible above the observatory dome. Venus is low to the right of the dome.

1950-2000 MST: Relaxed on the bench.

Viewed NGC3628 (Sarah's Galaxy), 102X. Nice view.

I SYNCed the AutoStar on NGC3628.

2006 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Mounted the D850 camera at prime focus, focused on the star Procyon, and locked the 12" primary mirror.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro on the iPhone to slew the telescope to Laevens 1 (globular cluster). Laevens 1 is the most distant Milky Way globular cluster seen from the Earth. It is 470,000 Lightyears away, much larger than the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. It is faint (Mag. +14.2) and small (0.4 arcsec).

2018 MST: StarLock ON.

Took these D850 prime focus, StarLock autoguided, images of Laevens 1 and Koposov 1 globular clusters, 5 minutes, ISO 6400. Koposov 1 is Mag. +17.1 and 0.5 arcsec. Both objects are at the center of the images.

2106 MST: Wi-Fi OFF.

Viewed M104 (Sombrero Galaxy), 102X and 94X.

Attached the LiDAR Cover on the iPhone and mounted the phone on the 1.25" 26mm eyepiece using the 3-axis adapter. Took this StarLock autoguided afocal 94X image of the Sombrero Galaxy with the Camera app (Night Mode, 30 seconds, 1X lens).

2125 MST: StarLock OFF.

2132 MST: LX600 OFF.

2140 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night. My report earned me this badge from SciStarter for my data contribution for 2.5 Million Acts of Science, 1-30 April 2026.

You can also contribute Night Sky Quality measurements at Globe at Night. Register for a free account at SciStarter before submitting your observations.

Close: Wednesday, 15 April 2026, 2143 MST Temperature: 60°F

Session Length: 3h 31m Conditions: Clear, SQM 20.98

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