cotterless45 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 A lovely clear calm night with the near full Moon, back to Sirius and Canis Major high in the south. Some surprises here to kick off,S 518 in a lovely field.v1 CMa another finer field with some colour here at x30, as doesH II 60 at x150 , with yellow and blue.β 19 split 3.0" at x150.S 534 showed another good field.Back to an old favourite, the double pile up triplet of S 538 and S 537.π CMa gives a lovely delicate pair at x160 as does μ CMa with a split of 3.2"Σ1016 gave another delicate view at x150.h 3945 gives orange and blue at x50.Lal 53 giving 3.8" at x160.An extraordinary sight was provided by the multiple groupΣ 332 and Σ 1097, hopefully I'll be back to sketch this view.A particularly lovely session, I used my ancient Vixen 102 achro. The stars were pinpoint marbles of varying colours. Such contrast and sharpness shows how good these golden oldies can be. Just a well adjusted R&P focuser and a 1.25" diagonal.Still worth getting out under the Moon for thoseClear skies !Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiltonstar Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Impressive, as ever, Nick!Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiltonstar Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 How do you get on with close doubles with this scope? Mine (similar objective, home-constructed tube) is good on wider pairs (> 2 arcsec), but loses it a bit with very close pairs due to violet and yellow scatter from the achro doublet. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cotterless45 Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 I check out viewing with something that I'm comfortable with such as the double double in Lyra.the separation here is 2.4" and 2.1". This is also useful in realising separations that are going to be narrower. I usually use a 150 f8, it was just a lovely change to get the 102 out. Not only does this give great contrast , but is easier on the eye in Moonlight. The only difficulties come with really faint companions , where averted vision , de focussing and moving the fov about might help. For a 4" aperture the Dawes limit gives about 1". Hardly achievable with our atmosphere.The 102 is f9.8. Only on the very brightest of targets is the ca noticeable. It certainly doesn't figure splitting in most binaries.It also helps to find the objectives had been lined up at construction , by pencil marks.I'll try some closer ones to see how it goes. Even with the Moon out last night , a few of the open clusters just looked stunning, as did comet Lovejoy and Jupiter.It has to be a refractor !Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan potts Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 You love your doubles Nick nice report as usual, if I ever get to meet you it may be nice to share a double single malt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeB Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Nice report, nick wish i had popped round now.... the old vix is a great scope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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