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lunator

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Everything posted by lunator

  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
  16. I believe the main reason is the scope would concentrate the light from the Sun which would potentially cause the filter to fail with catastrophic consequences for the observer.
  17. Hi Mark, Very nice report. I have the 15x70 and they are a very good pair of binoculars. I will have to try for M65/66 Cheers Ian
  18. I have seen it only once at an SGL star party.. back in 2011( from memory). Now I have darker clearer skies I hope to have more chance soon. Cheers Ian
  19. Got out last night for a quick session using my ultralight grab and go. 15*70 Binos on a monopod. There was some cloud about but in clear patches the transparency was excellent. I wanted to look a some southern targets. M42, M48, M47, M46, IC418, Colinder 121 I was very pleased to spot IC418. As a final target I had a look at Eta Cass and might have seen it elongated. Cheers Ian
  20. You can use any mount which is sturdy and so stable but as Michael say's a driven mount makes it much more pleasant to observe close doubles. I have spent this winter using an undriven mount and whilst you can observe close doubles it is a bit of a faff... 😁 Do you have a budget in mind? What sort of scope are you hoping to use? Cheers Ian
  21. I don't tend to drink whilst observing but if it is cold I will have a cup of Hot Chocolate when I come in 🙂 Cheers Ian
  22. It was only a binocular session for me last night. The Moon looked fantastic and I spent some time in Canis Major. In the 20x80 Sirius really sparkled. I always find that looking at Sirius and the fainter stars gives you a real sense of depth. You can 'see' the stars in 3D. I also spent some time looking at sigma Canis major. It is a K7Ib super giant star and it orange/red colour was very striking.
  23. This is an observing challenge for anyone with a large telescope. There is s tight double In Casseiopeia STF216. It is 0.3" apart. There is a provisional orbit. It will probably take at least a 14" scope to split but anyone is free to try. Please post your observations both positive and negative cheers Ian
  24. For me there are several reasons. First and foremost is the sense of enjoyment I get. I also like challenges such as spliting doubles or teasing detail out of the planets. The other main reason is, I like solving celestial puzzles. My current pet project is STF216 a 0.3" pair is Casseiopeia. ( A shout out to Robin_Astro for his help with this 😀) Cheers Ian
  25. Just has a short session with binoculars tonight. After the rain the milky way really stood out. As the transparency was excellent. I was only using the 12x42s but all the winyer brighter clusters were visible. Out of all the Messier clusters I observed M35/36/37/38/44/45 the one I enjoyed viewing the most was M35. I think it was because it was just beginning to resolve into stars from a misty patch. Cheers Ian
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