Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

lunator

Moderators
  • Posts

    7,908
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

885 Excellent

About lunator

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://doublestar.org.uk/index.html

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Interests
    www.doublestar.org.uk/index.html
  • Location
    South Somerset

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. A few more from the 15th. Had a look at some galaxies after these. 😀 Hydra STF1329AB A neat pair of yellow stars. Evenly matched. 2 bright stars in the field. 200mm scope x50 magnification. Hydra STF1336 A wide pair of very uneven magnitude. The primary is white, the secondary could be glimpsed with averted vision. Increasing the magnification helped. 200mm scope x50 magnification 09 18 00 33 co-ordinates Hydra STF1343 y/y A neat pair of evenly matched yellow-orange stars A wide pair shares the filed to the North. 200mm scope x50 magnification 09 20 05 00 co-ordinates Cheers Ian
  2. Hi John I am going to give this a try if we have some clear skies when the Moon is not in the sky. Cheers Ian
  3. This is a tricky one but I have kept my OO 8" F6 since 2005 so I think it would be the one I keep if I could only have one scope. I would add a push to system and an equatorial platform 😁 Cheers Ian
  4. It didn't clear here until 8.30 last night. I only had a short session as I had been up since 5am. Saw a few more doubles in Hydra and then several galaxies in Leo. A mixture of Messier and brighter NGC ones. Despite the fairly bright waxing cresent Moon I got down to galaxies of around 10.5 mag. Fairly happy with that. 😀 Cheers Ian
  5. I am looking forward to this. Hopefully it will be when the weather is generally better
  6. Yes I am enjoying better access to the Southern part of the sky with my new location
  7. I have only managed a few observing sessions this year. I have also been enjoying looking at fainter things thanks to my darker skies. I have not stopped observing doubles and here are a few from Gemini and Hydra. I was using my 8" Newt and magnification between x50 - x200 Gemini STF1035 w/w A neat pair of creamy white stars. Can be split at x50. Gemini STF1047AB,C w/b A wide pair with a noticeable difference in magnitude. The primary is white, the secondary pale blue. Shares low power firld with 51Gem. Gemini STF1068AB w/w A close pair with a moderate difference in magnitude. Both stars appear white. Gemini STF1070AB w/w A tight pair with a moderate difference in magnitude, with both stars appearing white. Hydra STF1243 w/b A close pair. A white primary and a pale blue secondary. A moderate difference in magnitude. Hint of a split at x150. Better view at x200. Hydra STF1260 w/w A Close pair of white stars with asmall difference in magnitude. Just split at x50. Best view at x75. Shares low power field with A (6) Hydrae An orange giant star. Hydra STF1261 y/b A wide pair of uneven magnitude. The primary is yellow, the secondary is pale blue. Shares the field with STF1260. Hydra STF1264 w/w a close pair of even magnitude. Both stars appear blue-white. A triangle of stars to the South. Hydra H 6 107 w/w A wide pair South of STF1264. The pair are of uneven magnitude. A third star (HD74123) lies some distance away. Making the triangular asterism. Hydra STF1270 y/b A fairly close pair with a moderate difference in magnitude. The primary is yellow, the secondary is blue-white. Best view at x60. Hydra STF1281AB w/w A wide pair of uneven magnitude. Both stars appear white although the primary has a warmer tint. Faint chain of stars to the East. Hydra STF1290 y/b A close pair of uneven magnitude. The primary Is yellow, the secondary is a small blue dot. Just spit at x150. Hydra STF1292 w/w A neat pair of white stars with a small difference in magnitude. Part of a right-angled triangle asterism. Hydra STF1295 w/w a fairly close pair of white stars with a small difference in magnitude. There are a few bright stars in the field. Hydra STF1308 o/b A neat pair with a small difference in magnitude. The primary is orange, with a blue-grey secondary. Hydra STF1309 w/w A neat pair of off-white stars. Evenly matched, a lovely sight. Hydra STF1316AB y/w A neat triple with a yellow primary and 2 companions either side. TOK63 The Aa,Ab pair not split. Hydra STF1316AC y/w A neat triple with a yellow primary and 2 companions either side. The BC pair are split by 14.2”. Cheers Ian
  8. Very nice sketches Richard. 😀 Is the notepad A5? I tend to use a 5 cm circle, are yours slightly smaller. Cheers Ian
  9. The frustrating thing about Sirius B is the ease with which Southern Hemisphere observers can split. I remember reading about someone spliting it in a 3" scope back in 2010. They had the luxury of a dark sky in Namibia.
  10. I have the Baader Zoom, I use it quite a lot in the Dob. The field of view is a little tight at 24mm but I have never had an issue finding objects. From memory I think it give about 1° FOV in this scope/ eyepiece combination. I am an ortho eyepiece fan but the Zoom is very useful and as far as I am concerned I will be keeping it. Cheers Ian
  11. Mayer and Herchel are slightly over looked with regards to double stars. The Struve catalogue did "hoover up" some of their discoveries. The way I like to tell people about the potted History of Double star observing is Galileo wa first to see a visual double through a telescope. Mayer created the first Catalogue. W. Herchel did the first systematic study of them and discovered Newtonian motion outside the solar system ( By accident tho' 😬). Struve did the first large systematic study, although John Herschel should also be included in this for his work especially for the Southern Hemisphere. I generally stop at this point as Aiken et al are less well known. 😀 Cheers Ian
  12. I've come to this a bit late, I tend to try and keep descriptions simple. Pairs are Round, elongated, Notched or Split. The last 3 descriptions are all resolved as you can see there is more than one star. Amongst the pro's such as Paul Couteau and Bob Argyle it is generally accepted you can resolve a pair down to half the Raleigh Criteria. So for a 100mm/4inch scope pairs can be resolved down to 0.7". The disk will be very overlapped to no dark line but certainly you could see more than one star. As a separate point. Paul Couteau said the resolving magnification started at twice the aperture diameter. Cheers Ian
  13. I had another short but enjoyable session. Saw Pons-brook in the 15x70's. Clearly fuzzy (if that is not an oxymoron 😀 ). Had an hour or so looking at more doubles in Hydra. Tried to see a couple of galaxies but Leo hadn't come round enough to clear some trees. Cheers Ian
  14. Stu, very nice report. I do intend to do some galaxy hunting in the next few sessions. I will added theses to my list. Last night was a curious mix of conditions. Seeing varied from poor to very good. I managed spot the AB pair of Zeta Cnc in the 8" scope. The dew was very heavy to begin with but improved quite quickly. I only stopped observing as I was due to be up at 5am.... Cheers Ian
  15. Had a short session with the Dob. Nice view of Zeta Cnc, managed to see all 3 components. Followed by M48 a nice open cluster. Finished off with a few doubles in Hydra. Cheers Ian
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.