Armand Popa

1.2' with a 5" is amazing! congrats. You have great observational abilities With a 8" you will be able to make that list, i am s sure

Hello I have an eq1 mount unused, so I want to motorize the RA axis, to use a small refractor on sidewalks, to show people the Moon I need some ideas how to adapt the nema 17 stepper motor to the mounnt. I will use two cogwheels and arduino. The problem is how to attach the motor Thank you

congrats for Uranus! Nice observation.

Thank you Chris. I know about the general seeing problem in the UK. Here the situation is better, but I also have to wait for good seeing conditions. My habit, is to make observations from the backyard every evening when the sky is clear. If there is no moon, i am looking for galaxies, clusters or anything i can see from a bortle 7 or 8 sky... ... If there is Moon on the sky, or my neighbor forgets to shut down the lights, or the conditions are fare good, then I do doubles. In generally 1 night out of 3-4 is suitable for under arc doubles

Stelledoppie is one of the best double star application. Also you can export xls lists with almost any filtering criteria. I really recommend it for double star lovers

Yes. The 8inch is a kind of best choice. A dobson is suitable for: Visual observation of galaxies, nebulas, star clusters, planets, double stars, but DO NOT expect to see images in the eyepiece as you see on the internet. You cannot see colors or amazing details. It is not so suitable for astrophotography (there is some solutions like eq platforms and field rotators but it becomes too complicated) Anyway for a good advice we must know what you want to do and how do you want to find your objects Armand

In the best base, under great sky conditions and a good scope, you can expect to see some of the nebulas an galaxies only as a faint and small cloud , something like this or this one Some of them can be visible only with adverted vision (you do not look directly to the object, but somewhere near it), and do not expect to see colors or too many details. With your scope, the planets must look nice, but in case of planetary observations, you depend on the good seeing conditions. When the conditions are not so good, you will not be able to make focus at higher magnifications. Do not give up! Astronomy is like any sport or learning a musical instrument . You have to practice a lot, and train your eye at the eyepiece. Clear sky and good luck Armand

I use a 2.5mm TMB clone, ore of my friends uses the 5mm version (also a clone) and even beeing a clone it is a gerat eyepiece

no problem. That`s SAO4635. I attached an xls file with those db, some has sao catalog names double stars under arc sec.xlsx

I have a SW 8-24 zoom eyepice. It not bad at all. Recently i bought a Baader Zoom Mark IV 8-24mm and I am impressed. The SV 8-24 looks exactly like the Baader 🤨. Is that a clone ?

SAO 19257 or HR8133 in Cepheus

Yes, I am souther 46 degrees I maybe need better conditions and must insist...till now I solved the Sirius problem with a "I can`t see the B"

Mark, thank you for your appreciation. From my site, Sirius doesn't get too high in the sky, I know i need luck and even a smaller scope will do it. But I will attack with the big gun

I can send an xls file if you want. I also offer my help to anyone who is interested in that kind of observations

I am sure you can see M57 under Bortle 8. I saw it from my backyard with a 102/500 refractor, also on a Bortle 8. The best way is to use a red dot finder and put it exactly between gamma and beta lyr. gamma and beta is visible from B8.

the 12inch dobson will do it! under arcsec double are like faint galaxies...at the beginning you can`t see .Then with some exercice and some ours spent at the ep , you see faint galaxies with advert vision and so on... It is the same with those "monster-doubles" I didn`t see Sirius as Double yet . I will try this year with the big dob, but I know that is very difficult... STF2 in CEP is also a very simple under-arcsec double, it is easy to find and not so hard to split

I didn't see it at first either. Best you can do, is to look at those double that are high in the sky for the moment, and look for those where both has the same mag. The atmosphere must be calm, and you must have a very good focus. You have to wait to see the airy disc and the diffraction circle around the airy. If you will see the circle you will surely see both stars.

John, thank you. I like that kind of challenge It is really difficult to split, but the satisfaction is great

Thank you Doug. I am sure that with the 10" dobson and TV Radian EP (4-5mm) you will go under the magical 1". After your first under 1, you will become addicted For the beginning you should try STF2872 from CEP. It is high on the sky right now. It is a double star, where one of the components is also double (that is the under sec double - the right one in your eyepiece) Must be patient, must have a good collimation a perfect focus.

Hello As a live in very close to the center of my city, the sky from my backyard is very light polluted. Anyhow, it is not impossible to make astronomical observation, so my main targets on those nights when I can`t go to darker sites, or when the Moon is nearby, are star clusters and double stars. In the last period, I pointed my attention to those doubles, where the separation is 1 arcsecond and smaller. As I consider myself a beginner as an under arc second double star observer, i targeted those undersec doubles where the mag difference (delta mag) is less then 2 , and the main stars mag is less then 10mag and the separation is between 0.6 - 1 arcsecond. Mainly I use two dobsonian telescopes (8 and 12" ) for this kind of observations and high magnifications with Kasai 4mm orhto, BGO 6mm ortho and a 2.5mm TMB planetary eyepiece. For finding I have a red dot finder and a right angle finder scope and an Ipad with SkySafari in night mode In the last 6 month I observed a ca. 50 under second double stars I really encourage this kind of observations for light polluted sites, backyards, Moon nights for those who own telescopes with an aperture of 200mm or more . The observed stars, and also my proposal for those who are interested are bellow: cst name sep mag1 mag2 Comment Telescope And STF 3056 AB 0.7 7.72 8.08 Part of multiple stars, separated ORION 305/1500 And AC 14 0.7 8.29 8.88 The atmosphere was not great for under arcsecond doubles but after all I separated it with the 6mm BGO eyepiece ORION 305/1500 Aql A 1181 0.7 7.29 8.83 Delta mag is high, so it was quite difficult to resolve this double. The companion was seen on the diffraction circle of the principal star ORION 305/1500 Cap BU 1211 0.9 7.91 8.79 It is resolved but unseparated. Maybe It is too low in the sky, or the seeing was not good enough OMEGON 203/1000 Cas BU 394 AB 0.9 8.49 8.77 Separated with the BGO 6mm orthoscopical ep. OMEGON 203/1000 Cas BU 232 AB 0.8 8.46 8.79 it is a part of a triple star. In the ep it looks very spectacular. Separated with the 6mm BGO orthoscopic ep and a 2x barlow lens. OMEGON 203/1000 Cas BU 235 Aa,Ab 0.8 7.54 7.82 It was difficult. Separated but it needed patience. OMEGON 203/1000 Cas STF 96 0.9 7.92 8.92 separated. It is a nice double with delta mag 1 ORION 305/1500 Cas A 816 0.9 7.5 7.81 It was a difficult double. The atmosphere was unstable, and it needed patience to find some calm moments. After all it was splited. OMEGON 203/1000 Cas HU 1030 0.8 8.93 8.99 Separated with the Kasai 4mm orthoscopical eyepiece. ORION 305/1500 Cas MLR 377 AB 0.7 8.42 8.7 It a difficult double, separated with the 4mm Kasai orthoscopical eyepiece ORION 305/1500 Cas STT 507 AB 0.7 6.76 7.76 It is part of a triple star with 50" sep between A and C, but the sep between AB is 0.7" It was easily splited in the 2.5mm TMB Eyepiece ORION 305/1500 Cep STF 2 0.9 6.68 6.89 Separated. It`s a very nice double OMEGON 203/1000 Cep STF 13 1 7.03 7.12 Separated. A very nice double ORION 305/1500 Cep STT 28 AB 0.9 7.55 8.75 It was difficult but after all it is separared. I think the delta mag and the seeing made it hard ORION 305/1500 Cep BU 472 0.8 8.76 8.8 This was a very hard double. It was difficult for me to find it and to separate it. It took more than 15min to split this double with the 6mm BGO orto and the 2x barlow OMEGON 203/1000 Cep STF 2780 AB 1 6.09 6.77 Separated ORION 305/1500 Cep H 1 48 0.8 7.21 7.33 Separated ORION 305/1500 Cep STT 458 AB 1 7.2 8.41 It was a difficult double. The mag dif is 1 and it was hard to see the companion. After all it was splited with the 6mm BGO orto with a 2X barlow lens OMEGON 203/1000 Cep STF 2879 AB 0.7 7.99 8.26 nice double. Separated ORION 305/1500 Cep STF 2872 BC 0.8 7.98 8 This is one of my favourite under arcsecond double star. The star is a triple star, A and B are quite tight, but BC is a 0.8 double. It is amazing! OMEGON 203/1000 Cyg STT 383 AB 0.8 7.03 8.28 separated ORION 305/1500 Cyg STT 384 AB 1 7.59 8.23 easy double. It was separated ORION 305/1500 Cyg STT 386 1 8.52 8.61 separated ORION 305/1500 Cyg A 378 1 8.48 8.98 separated ORION 305/1500 Cyg STT 403 AB 1 7.31 7.64 It is a part from a triple star. AB and AC was separated ORION 305/1500 Cyg STT 410 AB 0.9 6.73 6.83 easy double. It was separated in a generic 8-24 zoom eyepiece ORION 305/1500 Cyg STT 413 AB 0.9 4.73 6.26 separated with the 6mm BGO ortoscopic ep ORION 305/1500 Cyg BU 155 AB 0.7 7.36 8.13 separated. Nice double ORION 305/1500 Cyg STT 418 0.9 8.23 8.27 It is a very simple double. Separated ORION 305/1500 Del BU 63 AB 0.9 6.2 8.02 Rezolved but not separated. It is clearly elongated but I cannot separate them ORION 305/1500 Del STF 2723 AB 1 7.01 8.3 separated ORION 305/1500 Lac HO 180 AB 0.8 7.92 8.73 Separated with the 4mm Kasai ortoscopical eyepiece. ORION 305/1500 Lyr STF 2422 0.8 7.93 8.25 separated ORION 305/1500 Lyr STT 371 AB 0.9 7.03 7.55 separated OMEGON 203/1000 Oph STF 2106 AB 0.8 7.07 8.2 Due the tulburent atmosphere , it needed more then 15min to separate this double ORION 305/1500 Oph STT 315 0.8 5.78 7.26 Delta mag is high, so it was quite difficult to rezolve this double. ORION 305/1500 Oph STT 331 AB 1 7.74 8.82 The components has high mag, and the delta mag is 1.08, it was very difficult. After all it is separated ORION 305/1500 Oph STF 2281 AB 0.8 5.97 7.52 it was very difficult to separate this double. Delta mag is high and the atmosphere was tulburent ORION 305/1500 Peg COU 240 0.8 7.73 8.82 a very nice double. Separated ORION 305/1500 Peg BU 858 AB 0.8 7.81 8.78 not an easy double. It is separated ORION 305/1500 Peg STT 503 AB 1 8.26 8.63 It was easly separated in the Baader 8-24 Mark IV zoom ep ORION 305/1500 Per BU 1175 0.7 7.23 8.8 It was a hard to separate double. It was resolved in the 4mm Kasai ortoscopical ep, but it was separated only in the TMB 2.5mm planetary ep ORION 305/1500 Per HU 1058 0.9 8.22 8.83 easy, separated with the 6mm BGO orto ep ORION 305/1500 Per STT 66 1 8.11 8.54 separated with the 6mm BGO and the 2.5mm TMB ORION 305/1500 Ser AC 11 0.9 6.71 7.21 separated with the 6mm BGO ortoscopic ep ORION 305/1500 Sge STF 2651 AB 0.9 8.41 8.44 a beautiful double star. Separated ORION 305/1500 Vul HO 580 0.7 8.57 8.9 nice double. Separated ORION 305/1500 Vul STT 395 0.8 5.83 6.19 separated at 333X OMEGON 203/1000 Vul STT 417 AB 0.9 8.24 8.42 separated at 333X OMEGON 203/1000 Thank you, Armand

this is very nice topic. Personally I adore to work after observing lists. Thank you!

Hello I do astronomy since 2017 and use a 12” Dob , 8: Dob , and 4” reflector. I also use some binoculars. My main interest in visual observing are double stars, the tighter ones, under 1 arcsec ; DSO, currently I`m strugleing to complete te Herschell 400 list I live in a smaller city but the light pollution is a real problem, as my home is in downtown. I observe from the backyard every clear night, and in the period of new moon , go out to darker sites. I manage a small astroclub in our city https://www.astroclubgalaxis.ro/ and this is my page (for pictures, the page beeing in Romanian language) https://armandpopa.blogspot.com/ Thanky you Have a clear sky!