Although the sky was clear Wednesday night, 23 April 2025, I did not go to the observatory due to a very early morning commitment on Thursday 24 April. Thursday night was cloudy. Friday, 25 April, was clear but windy.

Saturday, 26 April, I was at Oracle State Park for celebrations of the Park becoming an International Dark Sky Park in 2014 and for International Dark Sky Week 2025. Special speakers were Park Ranger Michael Bain, TAAA President Mae Smith, myself, and Pinal County Supervisor Jeff McClure, who read the County's International Dark Sky Week Proclamation.

The full report is here.

Due to an early morning commitment on Monday, 28 April, I did not open the observatory Sunday night, 27 April.

Open: Monday, 28 April 2025, 1837 MST Temperature: 80°F

Session: 2092 Conditions: Clear

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR
iPhone 15 Pro Max

1846 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

1849 MST: Viewed Jupiter, 102X. No moons were visible in bright sky.

1901 MST: The Jovian moon Ganymede was visible, then a few seconds later the moon Io was visible in the bright sky, 102X.

1907 MST: Sunset.

1910 MST: The Jovian moon Callisto was now visible, 102X. The moon Europa was behind the planet.

1913 MST: Relaxed on the observatory patio bench while waiting for the sky to get darker.

1942 MST: Back inside the observatory. Viewed Jupiter and the three moons, 102X.

1945 MST: Moved to a higher elevation with an unobstructed view of the western horizon for an attempt to view Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN), which likely disintegrated on its close pass to the Sun.

Took these handheld photographs of the thin crescent Moon. The last photo shows the Pleiades (M45) at the top.

1948 MST: D850 DSLR (f/4.8, 1/2sec, ISO 400, FL 112mm)


2003 MST: D850 DSLR (f/4.8, 1/10sec, ISO 5000, FL 125mm)


2011 MST: iPhone 15 Pro Max (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens)


2005 MST: D850 DSLR (f/5.6, 1/10sec, ISO 6400, FL 300mm)

2015 MST: Back in the observatory. No comet seen.

Began preparing to do some imaging for my Milky Way Globular Clusters Project. Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused and SYNCed on the star Procyon, and locked the telescope mirror.

2032 MST: High Precision ON.

Slewed to Koposov 2 (globular cluster).

2036 MST: StarLock ON.

I was not able to image Koposov 2 (faint and very small; Mag. +17.6, size 0.3'). I will try again on a future session. I did image these globular clusters. Pyxis was not visible, so its location is circled. NGC3201 was barely above the southern horizon.

Pyxis


NGC3201

2109 MST: StarLock OFF.

Viewed NGC3201 (globular cluster), 102X.

2125 MST: LX600 OFF.

2128 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

Close: Monday, 28 April 2025, 2132 MST Temperature: 56°F

Session Length: 2h 55m Conditions: Clear, SQM 20.92

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I was recently interviewed by PHOENIX Magazine for International Dark Sky Week. See Citizen Hiker: Star Treks.

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