I spent part of the afternoon tracing cables around in the observatory, recording which cords go in which plugs, and rerouting them in a more organized manner. I moved the power cord for the remote power module (turned on and off by robofocus) into a back up power plug of CyberPower (its previous position served only as a surge protector).

It was beautifully clear as dusk fell. The ccd had some temperature problems as I tried to take flats, but everything else worked wonderful. I was set up and imaging IP UMa by 10:20 (though a little late for its 10:14 time of maximum light). I alternated 20 and 30 second frames (taking dark frames occasionally as well), and with only few exceptions the images were solid. I didn't have to adjust the field very much at all. While the ccd was running its sequences, Dr. Allred, Ryan, and I spent a lot of time staring in awe at the Milky Way. Dark lanes were clearly visible separating wide clouds. We also saw quite a few meteors. Ryan counted over a dozen in a half hour period. Everything ran smoothly. We kept imaging IP UMa for over 6 hours, covering over 2 full periods, until it got very low on the western horizon.

I then slewed to AU Cyg, a star from Dr. Stencel's target list, to take some images to see if our observations could be useful to him. There were many more stars in the nearby field, so it was easy to find where the telescope was pointing and shift the field to AU Cyg. There were also many more nearby stars in the frame.

The ccd began to have temperature problems again while I was taking flats, but I was grateful for the long night with relatively few problems. Venus rose in the pinkish-orange haze that foretold the Sun's rising. That made 4 planets that were visible over the course of the night: Saturn-low on the western horizon at dusk, Jupiter-a little higher and following Saturn toward the horizon, Mars-rising sometime after 2 am just ahead of the waning moon, and Venus-making its appearance just before dawn.

Overall, it was a great night.