Mircea

Regarding magnifications, Don is on the same opinion with Texereau. My main interest are double stars. So willy nilly I become accustomed to higher powers and I appropriated the opinion of Texereau. From 25mm eyepieces downward I have or use nothing until 12,5mm. From there I have all the focal length, millimeter to millimeter down to 2.5mm. For the highest powers, the focii are even denser: 2.5mm - 3mm - 3.2mm - 4mm ... DSO are my second interest. Most of my observations are made from 150x upward. Large open clusters and nebulae require the 25mm, 28mm, 30mm or 32mm eyepieces. But I don't see the point to use 75x or 80x or 90x. I need either the largest pupil or at least the resolving magnification. This is my way, it is not only opinion, it is my way of doing observations. ( And spend some money ... ). Mircea

I have also troubles with floaters. But I haven't seen any more difficulties with the 2.5mm eyepiece than with any other strong eyepiece. The seeing is the decisive factor. If the seeing is good, to use the 2.5mm eyepiece is like the 3mm Radian or 3.2mm TS Planetary. I was referring only to planetary nebula, not diffuse nebula. Good luck, Mircea

Stussy76 I have and use a TMB Planetary 2.5mm eyepiece when the seeing is good enough. The usefulness of any 2.5mm eyepiece depends on your observational interests, the possible uses being however quite narrow. I gathered some experience with the 2.5mm eyepiece on my 200mm and 250mm Dobsonian telescopes. For subarc double stars, planetary nebulae and immersive views of globular clusters, the said eyepiece is, sometime, useful. The easiest use is on globular clusters where it can be used quite often. On some planetary nebula even this eyepiece could be not strong enough. Anyway, forget about combining this eyepiece with UHC- like filters. It can be used only alone ... ''dry, on rocks''. The most demanding use is on subarc double stars where the seeing is the King. If the reflector is a Dobsonian, to be able to use a 2.5mm eyepiece, one should know very well all the idiosyncrasies of that telescope. It should be used in pair with a ''finder'' eyepiece of 4mm or 5mm. If you will use longer ''finder'' eyepieces, probably you will lose often the targets. So, also the finder of the telescope should be spot on. Good luck, Mircea

On November 6 I was observing with my home-made 60x828mm refractor. Among other objects I was looking at Keid / 40 Eri / STF 518. At 118x magnification ( TS 7mm UWA ) I believe I saw STF 518 AB, of magnitudes 4.4+ 9.3. The separation is 83'' , according to Stelle Doppie. What make this double to be a bit difficult is the magnitude difference between the primary star and the companion. In this case, Delta m = 4.9 magnitudes. The primary star was straw yellow. B was whitish but dim, well separated and seen to the left of the main star. I believe that was really 40 Eri B star. It was around midnight, or after and Eridanus was half way up. But the pair 38 Eri - 40 Eri is to the West of Eridanus so it was not far from the meridian. Apart of being fairly close to the main star, a minute of arc or more, the dim companion was seen to the left, in a nearly horizontal angle. I was using a prism diagonal. Stelle Doppie is stating PA = 83 degrees, matching well with what I was seeing. There was no trace of 40 Eri C of 11.2 magnitude. Why I was insisting on 40 Eri ? Because B companion is a white dwarf star, similar to Sirius B. I find it to be extremely interesting to see with a 60mm refractor a star, only one and half time bigger than Earth and located at 16 light-years from us. But in that 20.000 km body, 40 Eri B is packing half of the mass of the Sun. Other observations : - M45 with Alcyone with three companions - Jupiter with three belts and a triangular asterism of satellites to the Est - M1 , extremely dim, found with the STF 742 trick - M 37 - M36 - M38 where the last was quite dim -M35 - Delta Ori - STF 747 - Iota Ori AB, C not visible - Trapezium with four stars - NGC 1981 - M42 + M43, very dim but star GVT 3 visible - Zeta Ori AB only, C not visible - Lambda Ori AB, C not visible - Sigma Ori as triple star - M33 = negative, even using the '' Y'' trick - Keid/ 40 Eri / STF 518 AB, described above - The last observation was of Mars, at 118x. It seemed the Western limb was not circular but having a phase. With averted vision, something whitish was flickering at the North Pole. Unfortunately, it was too late, I was already tired to take a bigger telescope to confirm if these details hardly noticed about Barsoom were correct. Clear sky, Mircea

My ''Sky Watcher'' 250x1200mm Dobsonian, at our Star Party of Monday, November 4. The nick-name of this Dobsonian of mine is ''Grond'' because hardly any double star within Dawes criterion is able to resist to him. I started on this occasion to use heaters for the RACI finder. The one for the eyepiece is not yet tested. My thanks to Cristian and Armand who helped me with those heaters. The kid on my right is Andrei, the youngest member of our club. He is very handy with his ZWO Seestar S50. This is IC 1318 B imaged by him. We observed a total of 67 objects. The lion part were 28 open clusters, followed by 11 galaxies. However, the observation which delighted me on that evening was the split of Keid/ 40 Eri/ STF 518 seen as a triple star. According to Jim Kaler, 40 Eri B is the first discovered white dwarf, similar to Sirius B. Just this star is incomparably more easy to see. Mircea

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan- ATLAS, observed last night, October 19 with naked eyes. As it use to be the case with other faint objects seen on my urban sky, the comet was more like a discoloring of the sky's background. It was visible as an elongated but not very narrow object. The head of the comet was visible with averted vision, slightly brighter than the tail. ''Galaxis'' is our astronomy club. Although I cannot attend due to health issues, my friend Armand is holding Sidewalk Astronomy sessions dedicated to the comet Tsuchinshan on every clear night. One of the very few things I can brag in life is that I founded this club in 1987. Was it worth ? You tell me, after you see the picture attached. Mircea https://www.astroclubgalaxis.ro/2024/10/cometa-c2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-un.html

JOC Don't have high expectations, look for something rather dim. I'm sure you will be able to see the comet. It is observable but not the hype the media is making out of it. I have seen comet Tsuchinshan first on October 15/ Habicht 7x42mm. Again on October16/ Habicht 7x42mm and today/ Norlux 10x50mm. On all three occasions it was visible with naked eyes and binoculars. On 16 October, I used also the 250mm Dobsonian when I noticed the following details: -fan shaped head -bright , starlike nucleus. In the Dobsonian, the nucleus was no more quite starlike. It showed a very small but visible area like a non-resolved double star. -around the nucleus there was a thin but very bright layer. This, together with the nucleus was visible as a starlike kernel in the binoculars. - an anti- tail very dim and slightly inclined toward South compared to the axis of the tail. - an out-gasing on the direction of the Southern edge of coma like a extremely faint root of a second tail. This out-gasing was somewhat visible at 171x/ Svbony model 135 zoom but only with the T-Rex vision. - a single, considerable tail was always visible. At first two observations, the tail was at least six degree long. Today / Friday, I was able to see the tail on eight to nine degrees. Observations from home, from the city of Arad. My sky is Bortle 7 or 18,85 mag/ square second, measured with SQM. The Moon only made things worse. Good luck to all comet observers, Mircea

It is completely wrong to mention Covid, self-organization and abiotic darwinian selection in the same discussion. Covid is not the result of self-organization and of abiotic darwinian selection. It is a creation and it has Creators who bare names. There are thousand of doctors in Exo-Biology. This is one of the greatest deceptions of all times. ''Scientists'' of nothing, lacking exactly the object of their study: alien life. So, what are they doing all the time in their labs ? Some may suspect them of being involved in the creation of new drugs, biological and chemical weapons. Who will guarantee this not being the case ? Which is the reliable agency who is auditing their biological and chemical activity ? Since XIX Century, scientists are trying to create life from anorganic elements. At no avail. Now guess what ? If the lab was not able, the anorganic matter itself will do ''self-organization'' and it will succeed. In the times of Fontenelle, Thomas Dick, Flammarion or Lowell, extra-terestrial life was deemed as existing everywhere, on the other planets, on the comets, on asteroids, on meteors. The people of today are continuing this lunacy disregarding this simple fact : the direct study of interplanetary space, seven decades old, is proving exo-life don't exist anywhere. Mircea

Definitely Serviss was wrong on the subject of reflectivity. Fresh silver coating give a brighter image than aluminium ones of today. But that view was generally accepted by amateurs around the end of XIX Century / start of XX Century. This view was shared also by French amateurs, pupils of Camille Flammarion. One of Flammarion's pupil, or disciple was Victor Anestin, the pioneer of Amateur Astronomy in my country, Romania. He argued that the image in a reflector is fundamentally flowed by the fact you look indirectly, to a reflection of the celestial bodies.Unlike the refractor, were you look directly to the celestial body itself. But this is a deep misunderstanding, born from the position of the observer related to the instrument. If you add a diagonal, the situation is similar. But around year 1900 and after, the use of star diagonal was not common practice. And to be honest, those disciples were cherry picking a bit trough the writings of their Master, choosing what they liked. Actually, Flammarion wrote very positively about and recommended the Newtonian reflectors in his books ''Astronomie populaire'' and '' Curiosite des etoiles''. Even more, Flammarion started his wonderful review of Messier's Catalogue , after 1880, using an eight inches Newtonian made by Henry Brothers. Mircea

Such question was answered very long time ago. ''Navigare necesse est, vivere non este necesse''. For us, amateur astronomers: ''Observare necesse est, vivere non este necesse''. So, it don't matter how cold is, that is the real thing. Mircea

The list of red stars of Espin is available in the edition revised by him of the ''Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes'' of Thomas William Webb. The red stars are designated as Es-Birm. stars, index start at page 277. That edition, available for free download on archive.org,, have two volumes. In the volume dedicated to Starry Heavens ( what we call now Deep Sky), the objects are given with designations valid today: like NGC and STF numbers. My humble opinion is this is a very valuable book. Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, fifth edition by Rev. T. E. Espin Mircea

vlaiv Maybe I'm wrong but I see a short T2 thread on the focuser, right below the shoulder of the 1.25'' / 2'' adapter. I will be sorry for procrastinating until I lost the occasion to buy SH a 6'' F/20 Cassegrainian OTA for only 150 euro. That had a 1,25'' focuser and much smaller obstruction. With the XCel 25mm eyepiece would provide a maximum field of 30' at 120x minimum magnification. Good for double stars. Mircea

The Moon, Saturn and five stars of Aquarius ( Phi, X, Psi 1-2-3 Aqr), around ten o'clock local time, as seen with naked eyes and my Baigish 8x30mm binocular. The sky was hazy but the image was beautiful. ( This is how the artist secretly living in myself saw the ''event'', nothing scientific. ) Anyway, it was not quite a conjunction because the distance between the Moon and Saturn was bigger than four degrees. Mircea

Well Sunshine, it mean you haven't seen it all. I built a 72mm F/ 11 Newtonian with the BIG mirror grinded by my friend Attila. We had a cutting tool of 72mm made for cutting the blanks for a Cassegrain mirror. So why not make also a Newtonian of that size ? Actually my friend made more such mirrors, some ended in working OTA. Bellow is my 72mm F/11 Newtonian. Is splitting Eps 1-2 Lyr , Mu Dra, 16-17 Dra as triple, Porrima and so on. The Russian smallest Newtonian reflector was Alcor of 65mm diameter. Why this odd size ? If I remembr right, the prototype was made from the bottom of a bottle. ( I hope you don't ask me what kind of bottle ... ) But in the past, worldwide, there were made small reflectors of 50mm or even 40mm. I know, I know, hard to believe ... Even more. The French Claude Simeon Passemant wrote one of the first ATM books . The first project proposed is a Gregorian reflector with an aperture of one inch. It help much to know it was a French inch, meaning 27mm, in stark contrast with the dwarf British inch of 25,4mm. Mircea

Wednesday, August 7, I was rambling through Capricornus where I revisited M30. In Aquarius I saw M72 and M73. In Sagittarius I observed M75. The instrument used was my home-made ''Ugly Duckling'' Dobsonian D = 125mm F/ 6.9 with Svbony zoom model 135. M72 was quite dim and of M73 only three stars were visible. I spent most of the time, at the start of the session, trying to split again the double star 23 Aql, at the suggestion of one of my friends. I used on 23 Aql the powers of 173x/ TMB Planetary 5mm and 270x/ TS Planetary 3.2mm to no avail. Even if Pi Aql of 1.43'' and Lambda Oph of 1.4'' were beautifully split. This is my raw sketch of M72 in my logbook and the digital version of it. The magnitudes in the electronic version are referring only to stars. Clear sky, Mircea

All ingredients: night, setup, action. This is me , last night, while observing Helix Planetary Nebula with the Sky Watcher 250mm Dobsonian from one of our dark sky location. Picture taken by my friend Armand with iphone. As you can see, the hand held phone was able to record some stars of Sagittarius , Aquarius and Capricornus. The telescope in the background is Armand's equatorially mounted Newtonian of 130mm aperture. Small but very good. Mircea

Hello everybody I had a very good observation session last night. I used my Sky Watcher 250mm F/4.8 Dobsonian with magnifications up to 400x. I needed those because my main targets where to split 44 Boo and to see the planetary nebula hidden in Messier 24 star cloud. English is not my mother tongue, to prepare a full report is asking more time than I have now. I live in Romania and soon here it will be dark, I better prepare the telescopes for another observation. For now I will report only on the successful observation of planetary nebula NGC 6567. It was very difficult to find it but using the bent asterism of double stars shown on the chart of CDSA for M24 was very useful. From double star to double star, one get to the planetary which is dim and very small. The asterism of doubles : Sh 263 - Burnham 639 - Sh 264 . Next is a ''no name double'' on the chart and one step further is the planetary NGC 6567. One step further to the West from the planetary is the double Burnham 132 which was a piece of cake at the separation of 1,4''. But Bu 639 is a tough nut, I was not able to split AB with a separation of 0,47'' but I saw companion E , part of FOX 225, somewhere to the West, very far and beyond magnitude 13. At 240x/ Radian 5mm, the disc of nebula NGC 6567 was barely visible. This is why not much chances to get it by sweeping the area. I saw NGC 6567 as a very small blueish, hazy , round object without a bright center or central star. It is located to the West of a dim star. To the East of it I saw an asterism of stars looking like a pretty regular parallelogram. In the NE corner of the parallelogram shaped asterism it is a double star. I prepared the attached sketch based on an image from PANSTARRS DR1 using Paint and GIMP. Clear sky, Mircea

I have three Radians, 6mm -5mm- 3mm. I use them mainly at double stars and clusters. I don't have any intention to part with them, they provide orthoscopic image in a 60 degree field. A (nearly) happy man here. Why only nearly happy ? Because since nearly a year and half I'm looking for a 4mm I can reach but no chance yet. Mircea

Michael Regarding clouds I can help you just by wishing you clear sky. I done a lot of observing this month, the sky was, let call it ''clear''. But it was a kind of haze who affected badly the transparency. Regarding V UMi do you have a good chart for visual observations, please ? Close to North Pole the charts provided by VSP are quite strange if one ask a large field if I want to use it also as finder chart. I have to ask a large field to have comparison stars. Half of the chart is empty. Mircea

Last night, Thursday, July 25 I observed the variable stars R CrB, RR CrB, RX Boo, X Her, alf Her, bet Lyr and khi Cyg. The comparisons were made with 10x50mm binoculars. But at alf Her and khi Cyg I used also naked eye estimations. I estimated khi Cyg at 4.5mv by comparison with Eta Cyg = 39 and Phi Cyg = 47. It was very interesting to see the star khi Cyg with the naked eye. Between Albireo/ Beta Cyg and Eta Cyg only khi Cyg was visible with the naked eye. This formed with Eta Cyg and a star to the West a step right angled triangular asterism, with the right angle in Khi. Today, I found out from Stellarium that this star, from the West of khi, was 8 Cyg which is the comparison star 47 for R Lyrae. I however, with the naked eye, did not saw Phi Cyg of 4.7mv between Albireo and Eta Cyg. I didn't even insisted, khi Cyg is at a third from Eta Cyg to Beta Cyg, that's where I focused my attention. khi Cyg, 8 Cyg, R Lyr and star 44 I saw them with the naked eye. Observed this way, khi Cyg was slightly less bright than star 44. Also through binoculars, at first glance, there was a difference between Phi Cyg and khi Cyg, in favor of khi. The noted equation is: a 3 khi 1 b From which I derived the magnitude 4.5mv for the famous khi Cyg. With binoculars or the naked eye, khi appeared brighter than Phi Cyg = 47 but dimmer than star 44. I attach the sketch of the observation. It is somewhat hard to explain but this naked eye observation gave me great joy. Clear sky, Mircea

I invite you to observe a naked eye asterism. Camille Flammarion published in 1882 his book '' Les etoiles et les curiosites du ciel''. It is a sequel, the observation guide to his famous ''L' astronomie populaire''. There, on page 244 he is giving instructions to the wanna be astronomer how to find the constellation Ophiucus, namely her lucida , Alpha Oph. There is available, for these purpose, a drawing. It consist of an alignment of four of the brightest stars of our starry vault: Vega and Altair to the East and Arcturus and Antares to the West. Close to the intersections of the imaginary lines Altair- Arcturus with Vega - Antares it is Alpha Oph. As soon as I saw the drawing I was struck by the desire to see this asterism on the sky. I done it. It is a very large asterism but this is a good time of the year to try to see it. Even with naked eyes you will need ''to pan'' a bit to see the whole asterism. I'm proposing the name of FlammariX for this asterism, because is related to Flammarion and because of the ''X'' shape, a huge one. I'm looking forward to your feedback. Clear sky, Mircea

Thank you Ian I am so sorry I started so late observing variable stars. I did not waisted my time at the telescope. I observed hundreds of Deep Sky objects, about one thousand double stars of which hundred are subarc. But I had enough instructions and maps to start observing bright variable stars long before owning a telescope. When I was young, up until age 40, I had very good eyesight. But I didn't know it. I was seeing Epsilon Lyrae as double with the naked eyes. There was no internet, so I thought it is the same with everybody. I say this not for bragging but on the contrary, to show how stupid I was. I could have do observations of bright variable stars only with naked eye : Beta Lyr, Eta Aql, Alpha Her, Betelgeus and more. But for irrational reasons I kept delaying. It is good, very good and interesting to have and to observe the heaven with telescopes. What I missed is it is at least so interesting to observe variable stars. Even if I use only a hand held binocular. To cut a long story short, I started observing variables at age 65 instead of age 25. Hence the title of the topic. Clear sky, Mircea

Only last night, Monday, July 22, the skies were again more or less acceptable for variable star observations. Actually I was just going out to cool off a bit after the heat of the day. And, because I'm a wimp, I didn't go out empty-handed but armed with my Saga 10x42mm. After a few glances, I decided not to miss the opportunity and observe variables. Said and done, I observed the following thirteen variables: bet Lyr, R Lyr, del Cep, miu Cep, gam Cas, eta Aql, R Sct, U Del, EU Del, XY Lyr, g Her, R CrB, khi Cyg. R CrB has been known ''for a long time''. It was discovered as a variable star in 1795 by Pigott, who also discovered eta Aql. In this cycle I see that R CrB has stopped growing. It would have the ''right'' to rise to a maximum of 5.7 mv but, for some time, it has been lurking around magnitude 6mv. R Lyr, was discovered later as a variable, in 1856 by John Baxendell. Also this is a difficult to observe variable star. Last night I estimated it at 4.1mv. It's quite possible that the star was fainter. This is what the consensus among observers seems to be. But this much I can say with certainty: I have seen R Lyr with the naked eye but barely, barely - with averted vision - the comparison star ''43''. The above brings me to this comment: Khi Cyg, which I estimated at 4.5mv, using as comparison stars Eta Cyg = ''39'' and Fi Cyg = ''47'', I failed to see it with the naked eye. Unlike R Lyr. I received a message from Ms. Elizabeth Waagen of the AAVSO, in which I was informed that I had misrecorded the observations for Herschel's ''Garnet Star''. I recorded the observations under the index ''Mu Cep''. But this is a different star, the ''MU CEP'' star. As are U Del and EU Del in Dolphin. The server registered all my observations for miu Cep to MU CEP. Ooops ! That's why, from now on, I have to use the index ''miu Cep'' or ''MIU CEP''. Which, starting with the recording of last night's observation, I did. I wrote for others to know, the correct index is miu Cep for that star. Clear sky, Mircea

Thank you Nik 271, John, JeremyS and IB20 for the encouragement ! On Sunday, July 21, I continued the ''reading at the eyepiece'' of the I.S.W.A.T.I.T. book. The telescope used was the already mentioned Dobsonian D= 125mm F/6.9 armed with the Svbony 10 -30mm zoom eyepiece and TMB Planetary eyepieces. Canes Venatici, p. 22 -23: there are only five stars for this constellation in the table and on the map in Olcott's book. - Cor Caroli/ Alfa CVn is a superb double star, one of the most beautiful. If I had to choose one word to describe it, it would be "elegant". One must observe it carefully, relaxed. At 87x I could already start seeing the fantastic color contrast but it was 173x when it become clearly visible: the primary is a very pure white and the companion is lilac. - 2 CVn was easily resolved at 87x but it is worth using higher magnifications here too. At 173x the colors of the components were much better visible: the primary was a pale orange while the companion I saw it as lavender indigo. Olcott saw it as blue. - ''La Superba''/ Y CVn was already visible as orange in the RACI finder but much better, deeper orange-reddish color in the telescope, at 87x. - I found with difficulty STF 1615, hidden in the haze, then resolved it without difficulty. - 15 CVn appears in the eyepiece as a bright triple but Olcott only describes it as a double. The third bright star, visible close at low power, does not belong to the system. Stelle Doppie however shows me that 15 CVn really is a triple. The STFA 24 double's companion should resolve into BU 608 BC with a 1.3" separation. STFA 24 or 15 CVn I can tick it off but I still wish to see BU 608. Maybe tonight ? So, we have a short list for Canis Venatici but with three stars with very nice color contrast. Y CVn was not included in the table , only in the notes. That is however older acquaintance to me. And since April 30 is on my variable star menu. Ursa Major , pag. 34 -35: Olcott lists nine double/multiple stars, of which I visited seven last night. - 23 UMa was fairly easy to find but a bit harder to resolve, not because of the 23'' separation but because of a Delta mag = 5.5mv. Once found, I split it and then used this star to find the others in the area. - Sigma 2 / STF 1306 was more difficult to resolve. It has a 4'' separation and Delta m = 4mv. At 87x I got nowhere, I had to use 173x, and a lot of patience but in the end I succeeded. - Using the minimum magnification of 29x , obtained with the zoom eyepiece, I then resolved STF 1415, STF 1495, STF 1520, 65 UMa and Zeta UMa. I zoomed in for about 60x magnification to see the galaxy M81, visible only with averted vision. I am left with two doubles of Olcott's list for UMa not observed: 57 UMa and STF 1561. They were already lost in the haze and in the city's light pollution. And I look forward with anticipation for a bit of armwrestling with BU 608 BC. * I tested the Apex 28mm eyepiece, 2'' format, on the small Dobsonian. It provides a magnification of 31x and a real field on the sky of 1,8*: Cr 399 - almost completely fit in the field of the eyepiece, M29, M39, 61 Cyg, Zeta Lyr, Beta Lyr, star fields of the Milky Way. Not a great eyepiece but is usable at F/6.9. It was bonus so I will not throw it away. * I concluded the session with a gift to ''heart, mind and soul''. That was a nice split of Delta Cyg at 173x. Mircea

I am embarked to revisit ''eye at the eyepiece'' the book ''In Starland with a Three Inch Telescope'', short ''I.S.W.A.T.I.T.'', by William Tyler Olcott. Until now I revisited the objects of : Corona Borealis, Draco, Hercules, Lyra, Bootes, Ophiucus and Serpens, Sagitta and Delphinus, Scorpio, Ursa Minor, Aquila, Cepheus and Cygnus. Below is my adventure of Friday, last night, in the den of the Scorpio: On Friday, July 19 this year, I observed the objects in the constellation Scorpio, according to Olcott's book I.S.W.A.A.T.I.T., pp. 32 - 33. The instrument used was my ''Ugly Duckling'' Dobsonian D=125mm F/6.9, with the Svbony 10 - 30mm zoom eyepiece and various TMB or TS Planetary eyepieces ( 5mm, 4mm, 3.2mm). * The constellation Scorpius is, for my observations from home, a southern frontier constellation. I can't even see all of it, the M6 and M7 clusters are visible in a very short window of time along with the stars in the tail of the fiery insect. So, last night, I didn't get my hopes up, I started observing with the feeling '' come on, I have to do this one''. How far from the truth ! It's true that Olcott's list for Scorpio is short, only six stars. But what stars... One of them is perhaps the most beautiful multiple star of the celestial sphere. - I made a slow and tame debut with Beta Sco/ Graffias, a 14'' double that I solved in ''my observational youth'' on June 13, 2015, with my D = 45mmx300mm mini-refractor at 17x. So it's an easy double. - Not the same can be said about the Nu Sco. It bears a worthy name for some hero from ''Star Wars'', the old series. ( Anyway, I stopped following the story long time ago, it had become boringly conformist in being nonconformist ... ). Olcott included in his book only what is seen at Jabbah at low magnification, i.e. double H 5 6 AC, with a 4.35mv primary and a 6.6mv companion, separated by 41''. At 87x, things got more complicated and Jabbah was seen as a triple star, with a 4.35mv primary and two companions, C and D, 2.4'' apart and 41'' from the 4.3mv primary. At 173x, the bright star is resolved in Burnham 120 AB, separated by 1.35''. A true celestial treasure, a necklace of astral gems, a beauty beyond compare! Oh, how dear to me is this tiny reflector, small and ugly by day, but at night it spreads its wings and becomes an astral swan carrying me on its wings through such enchanted corners of the Galaxy! - And, thrilled by the marvelous view, I moved on to one of the next stars on the list, Xi Sco. There, after Olcott, I was to see an uneven 7" double. Indeed, a bright star with a companion at 7" was visible in the telescope field. But... what the hell... when did that happen? ... look, I took off the telescope... What am I supposed to do in the middle of the night with a decollimated telescope? The primary star showed a serious astigmatism at 173x, obtained with the TMB Planetary 5mm eyepiece. I pointed then the telescope at other stars and, lo and behold, the astigmatism disappears. It didn't take me long to "realize" that something was wrong with the star Xi Sco. I magnified to 216x with TMB 4mm ... et voila ... this primary is double ? At 270x, obtained with TS Planetary 3.2mm, there was no doubt. Yes, Xi Sco AB is 1.08" apart. In the telescope field, Xi Sco we see five stars: AB at 1.1''', C at 7'' and two more distant stars that actually form a separated double, STF 1999 with AB separation of 12''. I have run out of epithets and adjectives at Nu Sco but Xi Sco seems to be, if not ''the most'', ''one of the most'' beautiful multiple stars on the starless vault. Try it for yourselves, it'll be over soon. Not the star, but the period of visibility. - Double P. 236, 4'', I couldn't find it, neither in the sky, nor in CDSA, nor in Taki's atlas of doubles. I set the RDF finder to the approximate location shown by Olcott on his sketch and groped around the 1/3 position between Eta Oph and Antares. The only double star that resembles Olcott's parameters ( 6,5mv+ 8mv + 4'') is the star Sh 240: 6,6mv+ 7,6mv+ 4,3''. I easily resolved this one with the Baader f= 12.5mm micrometer eyepiece at 69x. For the ''Ugly Duckling'' reflector, I haven't yet determined the value of a linear divisions, so I didn't try to measure the separation. But I tried to measure the position angle and got PA = 350*. Stelle Doppie gives PA = 253.4*, measured in 2019. An error of only 1,6* on the first try I say to be a big progress compared to the estimated accuracy of +/ - five degrees ( ten, fifteen , twenty ... ) so far. - I also tried a position angle measurement at Albireo where I got PA= 55*. Stelle Doppie gives for Beta Cyg a PA= 53,9* from 2022. Error of 1.1*. The future is rosy ! - I looked again at Rho Oph that Olcott included here at Scorpio and saw four components, with AB = 3''. C is at 151'' and D is at 156''. Another celestial beauty ! * I quickly went back to Ursa Minor where I fallen behind on Thursday when I didn't found STT 262. But observed Burnham 799 instead. Stellarium showed me at what a short distance from Burnham 799 is STT 262. I found very easily STT 262 and resolved it at 29x/ Svbony model 170 at f=30mm. ( End of the ''Olcott revisited'' part of the observation of last night.) - I continued by resolving again at 173x the double Burnham 799, with a separation of 1,4''. - In Cepheus I have resolved but not split STF 2 and STF 13. Neither at 216x/ TMB Planetary 4mm nor at 270x/ TS Planetary 3,2mm, I didn't get the separation, only the ''eternal'' sign of Infinity. I was satisfied with that. * I ended with the Saturn observation where at 173x, I could see very well the ring become a thick bar. To the south of the ring, a band or a shadow of the ring was visible? Three stars could be seen to the west of Saturn, forming a sloping line. Right near the eastern ansa was Rhea. Six times the diameter of the ring to the west was Titan. Sometimes, even farther west of Titan and very, very faintly glowing was seen fluctuating, only barely visible, a very dim spot that was never visible with direct vision: Iapetus. This elusive object was seen with averted vision only, about one-third of the distance between Titan and the middle star of the three-star linear asterism in the western part of the field. Very rich is Scorpio! Such are these mythological beasts! Like Smaug, the Fire Dragon, the possessor of a superb hoard in Draco. Some, however, with quicker hands - like Bilbo Baggins, or eyepieces - like old Mircea who wrote this lines, dare to sneak to their treasures. I'm attaching a picture of my beloved ''Ugly Duckling'' Dobsonian reflector, D = 125mm F/6.9, used at Scorpio. Next year, this home-made reflector, will be thirty years old. If the subject will trigger some interest, I will post also my next observations. Mircea Translated with DeepL.com (free version)