Tuesday, 6 August 2024, was partly cloudy until late afternoon when thunderstorms began popping up. That night a small but intense thunderstorm came through (0.42" rain in about 20 minutes). Early Wednesday morning, 7 August, had a brief rainshower (0.02"). The rest of the day was cloudy.

Thursday morning, 8 August, was mostly clear.

0810 MST: Using eclipse glasses, I viewed the Sun naked eye. Active Sunspot AR3780 was visible. I then used my Lunt SUNoculars 8x32 to view the Sun. Many sunspots were visible. I decided to open the observatory for the first time since 16 July.

Open: Thursday, 8 August 2024, 0827 MST Temperature: 79°F

Session: 1998 Conditions: Mostly clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
2" 9mm 100° eyepiece
2" 30mm eyepiece

Camera:
iPhone 15 Pro Max

0830 MST: Dome Cover OFF.

0834 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Attached the Orion Full Aperture Solar Filter on the 12" telescope. Used the "Sun as Asteroid" to GOTO the Sun.

Viewed the Sun, 102X. There were many sunspots visible. Active Sunspot AR3780 was nice to view. 271X. Viewed the Sun, 81X.

Mounted the iPhone 15 Pro Max on the 30mm eyepiece using the Accuview 3-Axis Smartphone Adapter. Imaged the Sun using the iOS app NightCap Camera and the Apple Camera app. This afocal 81X image of the Sun was taken with the Camera app (1X lens). AR3780 is the large sunspot left of center.

Mounted the iPhone on the 9mm eyepiece and imaged Sunspot AR3780 using NightCap Camera and the Camera app. This afocal 271X image was taken with NightCap Camera (ISO 55, 1/230sec, 1X lens).

Seeing was not great while I was imaging.

Viewed the Sun, 271X and 102X.

0910 MST: LX600 OFF.

0922 MST: Dome Cover ON. (Afternoon and nighttime Monsoon storms still in the forecasts.)

Close: Thursday, 8 August 2024, 0924 MST Temperature: 85°F

Session Length: 0h 57m Conditions: Mostly clear, breezy

It was nice to be back in the observatory. It had been over 3 weeks since my last session due to cloudy nights.

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