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lunator

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Posts posted by lunator

  1. Very nice sketches. 😁

    As noted above find West first by watching the star drift. I like the idea of using "where Polaris is" as away to find North.

    I usually just move the scope manually to confirm direction. 

    Cheers

    Ian

    • Like 1
  2. I had a reasonable view of Mercury walking the dog yesterday evening. It appeared out of the dusk glow around 7pm. I had taken my spotting scope with me so had a look through that as well. Mercury was clearly a disc and seemed to have a yellow tint. 

    After the walk I set up the Dob and had a look at some doubles and clusters in Auriga.

    Cheers 

    Ian

    • Like 5
  3. In reverse aperture order. Ones I have available. 

    OO OMC250.

    OO Europa 200 F6 Newt 

    ST80

    ETX70. - broken mount but use it for solar.

    I also have a couple of Bimos etc 

    I have lent out 

    ST120 

    Celestron 114mm powerseeker. Not a great scope but good if you want to just use a telescope to learn the basics. 

    Cheers

    Ian

    • Like 1
  4.  

    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
    • Like 2
  5. 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

     

    • Like 7
  6. 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

    • Like 8
  7. 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

    • Like 4
  8. 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

    • Like 3
  9. 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

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 3
  10. 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

    • Like 8
  11. 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

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