Open: Saturday, 21 December 2024, 1802 MST Temperature: 75°F

Session: 2054 Conditions: Mostly clear

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR
iPhone 15 Pro Max

1808 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision ON.

Viewed Venus, 102X. Viewed Saturn, 102X. Then viewed Jupiter and the four Galilean Moons, 102X.

Prepared the D850 DSLR camera for imaging and mounted it at prime focus + focal reducer, focused on the star Aldebaran, locked the telescope mirror, and slewed to the first Barnard Object (dark nebula) to be imaged this session.

1832 MST: StarLock ON.

Imaged the following Barnard Objects, StarLock autoguided, 30 seconds, ISO 6400. Some images have an optical artifact from a bright star just outside the camera field-of-view.

1948 MST: StarLock OFF.

I observed, or tried to, more Barnard Objects, 102X: B20, B21, B22, B14, B23, B220, B24, B221, B25, B26, B27, B28, and B29.

Viewed M1 (Crab Nebula), 102X.

2027 MST: LX600 OFF.

With Orion rising in the east, I took this handheld iPhone 15 Pro Max photo using the Camera app (Night Mode, 10 seconds, 2X lens).

2040 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading.

Close: Saturday, 21 December 2024, 2043 MST Temperature: 56°F

Session Length: 2h 41m Conditions: Mostly clear, SQM 20.68

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