The sky was clear during the day on Wednesday, 10 June. I had planned to open the observatory before sunset, but unforecast clouds began appearing in the southwestern sky late afternoon, moving northeastward. At 2020 MST took this iPhone 15 Pro Max photo of the western sky showing Jupiter and Venus further apart than the previous night. Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 2X lens).

Cloudy skies continued. With rain and possible thunderstorms in the forecasts for the next week, Friday morning, 12 June, I put the Dome Cover ON. Sunday evening, 14 June, a strong thunderstorm was over Mt Lemmon south of Oracle. Right at sunset this red rainbow was visible.

Monsoon Season officially began on Monday, 15 June. It kicked off a little early Sunday evening with strong thunderstorms, continuous lighting for several hours, and lots of wind and rain (0.42"). Thunderstorms continued before sunrise on Monday (0.23").

Although a cloudy sky is forecast for tomorrow's mid-day Occultation of Venus, the sky was clear on 16 June so I decided to do a Dry Run to prepare for the occultation, just in case.

Open: Tuesday, 16 June 2026, 1147 MST Temperature: 86°F

Session: 2146 Conditions: Clear, windy

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

1152 MST: Dome Cover OFF.

SYNCed observatory clock.

1200 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging.

Venus was easily seen in the bright blue sky using the 9x50 finderscope. Viewed the planet Venus, 102X. Gibbous phase visible. Seeing was lousy.

Today the Moon is invisible in the bright sky. Tomorrow it will be 3 days old and 11% illuminated and difficult to see due to low contrast against the bright blue sky.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus and focused on Venus. Focusing was difficult due to the wind and lousy seeing.

Took four 1080p, 60fps, ISO 400 videos at various shutter speeds. I was hoping for a shutter speed that would let me capture tomorrow's low contrast crescent Moon without seriously overexposing Venus. Unfortunately, it appears that getting the Moon will be a challenge.

This video was taken with a shutter speed of 1/1600sec.

Click to view video

To view the full-size video in another window click here.

Removed the camera and viewed Venus, 102X.

1219 MST: LX600 OFF.

1231 MST: Dome Cover ON (thunderstorms in the forecasts).

Close: Tuesday, 16 June 2026, 1233 MST Temperature: 94°F

Session Length: 0h 46m Conditions: Clear, windy

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