Open: Friday, 8 May 2026, 1812 MST Temperature: 77°F

Session: 2132 Conditions: Clear, breezy

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 14mm 100° eyepiece

Camera:
D850 DSLR

SYNCed observatory clock to WWV time signals. Then prepared the D850 DSLR camera for imaging later in the night.

1824 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X. Gibbous phase visible. Viewed Jupiter, 102X. The equatorial cloud bands were visible in the bright blue sky.

1830 MST: Began relaxing on the observatory patio bench while waiting for sunset.

1914 MST: Sunset. Back inside the observatory.

1915 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro on the iPhone 15 Pro Max to GOTO Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS). It would be very low in the western after dark and probably not visible from the observatory.

1919 MST: Back to the bench while waiting for the sky to become darker.

2000 MST: Comet was now behind some trees and too low to observe.

2020 MST: Back in the observatory. Calm now. I began preparing to image a Milky Way globular cluster. Mounted the D850 camera at prime focus, focused on the star Spica, and locked the 12" telescope mirror.

Using SkySafari on the iPhone, did a GOTO to Arp-Madore 4 (globular cluster). It was faint and low in the southeastern sky.

2034 MST: StarLock ON.

Took this StarLock autoguided prime focus image, 5 minutes, ISO 6400. The circle shows the location of Arp-Madore 4 but extensive post-processing did not bring out the faint, small globular cluster.

Then slewed to M104 (Sombrero Galaxy). Took this StarLock autoguided prime focus image, 3 minutes, ISO 1600.

2108 MST: StarLock OFF, Wi-Fi OFF.

Viewed M104 (Sombrero Galaxy), 102X and 174X. The 174X magnification provided a nice view of the galaxy.

2188 MST: LX600 OFF.

Terminated the first Kissing Bug of the season.

2128 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

Close: Friday, 8 May 2026, 2132 MST Temperature: 71°F

Session Length: 3h 20m Conditions: Clear, SQM 20.87

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