Open: Saturday, 20 June 2026, 1820 MST Temperature: 88°F

Session: 2149 Conditions: Clear, breezy

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 9mm 100° eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 15 Pro Max

1826 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X and 271X. Viewed Jupiter, 271X, in the bright blue sky.

1834 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench while waiting for some visitors to arrive.

1920 MST: Visitors arrived. I provided a brief background of the area around Cassiopeia Observatory. We then watched the Sun set.

1938 MST: Sunset. Calm now.

At the 12" telescope in the observatory the visitors were thrilled by the views of Jupiter and three of the Galilean Moons (271X), Venus (271X), and the Moon (102X and 271X). They got to "fly" over the Moon and see the sights there by controlling the telescope on their own.

I demonstrated how to take photographs of the Moon using a smartphone. I took these afocal 102X and 271X images using the iPhone Camera app (1X lens).

They then got to see two globular clusters (Omega Centauri and M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules), the Ring Nebula (M57), and the beautiful and colorful double star Albireo.

They also enjoyed viewing the stars in our night sky even with the bright moonlight. Unfortunately, the bright Moon prevented any viewing of faint objects through the telescope, so we called it a night.

2120 MST: The visitors left.

2125 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Saturday, 20 June 2026, 2131 MST Temperature: 77°F

Session Length: 3h 11m Conditions: Clear

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