Thursday, 5 August 2021, dawned clear, but the Monsoon pattern began re-establishing itself with cumulus cloud buildups mid-afternoon and clouds continued into the night. Friday, 6 August, was cloudy.

Saturday, 7 August, dawned clear, but some clouds began appearing mid-afternoon. Fortunately, it was mostly clear in the late afternoon. Although I didn't have high confidence that the sky would be clear enough to photograph what I had planned for the session, I decided to open the observatory anyway.

Open: Saturday, 7 August 2021, 1841 MST Temperature: 88°F

Session: 1653 Conditions: Mostly clear

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

Camera:
iPhone 11 Pro Max

After opening the observatory I relaxed on the observatory patio bench to monitor the clouds.

1920 MST: sunset.

The clouds began increasing. I decided to do some observing before the cloud cover became worse.

1944 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X, through the clouds to the west. A nice gibbous phase was visible.

The viewed the double star Albireo, 102X, through thin clouds.

This is a handheld iPhone 11 Pro Max photo of Albireo, afocal 102X, taken using the iOS app NightCap Camera (Light Boost, ISO 3200, 1/4sec, 1X lens).

By now the clouds were in most of the sky. Decided to give up for the night.

1959 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Saturday, 7 August 2021, 2010 MST Temperature: 82°F

Session Length: 1h 29m Conditions: Mostly cloudy

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