Open: Wednesday, 17 December 2025, 1812 MST Temperature: 71°F

Session: 2111 Conditions: Mostly clear

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

Camera:
D850 DSLR

1817 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

SYNCed on the star Fomalhaut.

Prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging for my Milky Way Globular Clusters Project. Mounted the DSLR at prime focus, focused on Fomalhaut, and locked the primary mirror.

1830 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro to GOTO Whiting 1 (globular cluster).

1834 MST: StarLock ON.

Began imaging Whiting 1. Unfortunately, seeing was very bad (possibly due to thin clouds) and autoguiding was very erratic. Paused imaging to see if autoguiding would improve. It did not and I gave up on doing any imaging this session.

1905 MST: StarLock ON, Wi-Fi OFF.

Viewed the planet Neptune using a 8-24mm zoom eyepiece. The planet's blue disk was very small at 102X, but nicely visible at 305X.

Viewed Saturn using the zoom eyepiece. The view was nice at 305X.

Then viewed Uranus using the zoom eyepiece. Disk easily seen at 102X and was especially nice at 305X.

Viewed M1 (Crab Nebula) using the zoom eyepiece. It was nice at all magnifications from 102X to 203X. 305X was too much magnification for a good view of this faint object.

Took a final look at the Crab Nebula using the 24mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece. Nice view, 102X.

1930 MST: LX600 OFF.

1940 MST: Took a Sky Quality reading and reported the result to Globe at Night.

Close: Wednesday, 17 December 2025, 1942 MST Temperature: 59°F

Session Length: 1h 30m Conditions: Mostly clear, SQM 20.90

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