lunator

Hi Richard

The WDS is a brilliant resource, but it is not perfect 😀.

I have been involved in correcting a dozen or so errors. I quite enjoy this aspect of the hobby.

If you look at the notes column in the WDS the spurious pars have an X in the column. 

Cheers

Ian

Hi Richard, I always check the notes file in the WDS.

It looks like SEI895 is a spurious double.

20075+3236 SEI 895 Neither component seen on POSS plate; may be flaws on AC Potsdam plate .

Cheers

Ian

We might sound like a broken record but of the 3 scopes I have an 80mm refractor, a 250mm Mak and a 200mm Newt which is now on a Dob base, the 2000mm newt is the best all-rounder. Each has their individual  strengths but the Newt is the best compromise overall if you want to try several aspects of the hobby. 

Cheers

Ian

Hi Richard Reduc is a good bit of software. 

I have used it in the past and once my obs is up and running I jhope to use it again. 

If you feel you getting proficient then I would recommend contacting Bob Argyle. He is President of the Double Star section of the Webb Society and I am sure he would be happy to publish your measures. 

Kind Regards

Ian

It looks an excellent piece of kit and certainly performs well enough for astro photography. 🙂

Cheers

Ian

Very nice website.

Hopefully you can catch the aurora and meteors

Cheers

Ian

Michael

Nice report  😀  It is amazing what can be split when the seeing is excellent. 

Cheers

Ian

I had a short session last night.

The seeing was variable and Moon glow was significant. 

Some of the views of Jupiter were good. I also looked at a few doubles. 

I finished off with the Moon, where in one crater on the southern limb only one edge and the peaks were visible. This gave the impression that the lit peaks were detached from the Moon.

Cheers 

Ian

Stu

As a fellow Somerset incomer I can confirm the seeing is better, i hadn't realise quite poor things were in London and Buckinghamshire.

Cheers 

Ian

It sounds an amazing journey, thanks for posting.

cheers

Ian

Just add a bit about my process. I have a list of target doubles and their last recorded separations. Thee WDS is good for this but not perfect. I sometimes have to check the 6th Orbit Catalogue to get more accurate information. 

I observe the pair and note the direction of the  companion. Only after the session do I check the PA and if it is in the right quadrant I can feel that I saw it and not just "averted imagination" 

There are many times where I may have seen something but the location doesn't match so I don't count that as a successful observation.

Cheers

Ian

I still tend to use my Norton star atlas. 

I managed to see  Mare Humboldtianum due to the favourable libration.

Cheers

Ian

That is a very good pic Paul.

I am enjoying seeing it visually from my back garden. Never been able to see it through my scope from where I used to live.

Cheers

Ian

Hi John I was using my 200mm F6 newt. It can do sub-arc second doubles as long as seeing co-operates.

Cheers

Ian

I had a look at some doubles in Casseiopeia and Cepheus. The Moon was quite bright and made a nice pair with Jupiter.

Tye seeing seemed fairly good. 

Cass    STF121AB    y/y    A wide pair with a small difference in magnitude. The primary is yellow. The secondary is yellow but has a warmer tint. A third component CTT13AC lies some distance way and is a blue-grey colour. It is also a close double TDS1882CD which is an unconfirmed pair. I didn't try for this pair 😀

Cass    STF123AB    w/w    A fairly wide pair, both appear white and of even magnitude.

Cass    STF123CD    w/nc    A fairly close pair with a moderate difference in magnitude. Took x150 to split.

Cass    STF128    y/b    A neat pair of yellow and blue. A fairly wide pair but the secondary is faint. Part of a triangular asterism at low powers.

Cass    STF130    y/b    A fairly wide pair of uneven magnitude. The primary is yellow, the secondary is pale blue. Part of a triangular asterism. Share the field with 38 Cas at low powers.

Cass    STF148    w/w    A very tight pair not split cleanly. The secondary appears slightly to the north. WDS has 0.1”, 6th orbit Catalogue has 0.37” sep. Go for this one if the seeing is good and you are feeling brave 😀

NGC 663 is a nice open cluster with many visual doubles. I had a look,at 3 bright struve ones.

Cass    STF151    w/w    A fairly close pair in NGC663. A small difference in magnitude. A rich field

Cass    STF152    w/nc    A fairly wide pair of uneven magnitude in NGC 663. A rich field
Cass    STF153    w/w    A wite pair of stars with  moderate difference in magnitude. In NGC 663

Cephus    STF127    w/b    A wide pair of uneven magnitude. The primary is white, the secondary is pale blue. A moderately rich field.
 

Cheers

Ian

Only popped out briefly tonight as we had guests round. I did offer to take them out but they were concerned about the cold. I had a brief look at the Moon, Jupiter and M42.

I did get out for a session last night which was very good. Plenty of detail on the Moon& Jupiter. I also observed the companion of STF148 a rather tight double. Feeling quite chuffed about that ☺️ 

Cheers

Ian

I had been watching the weather forecast for Sunday night. It looked promising and amazingly as darkness fell the sky stayed clear. The wind was a rather chilly northerly but this hopefully meant good seeing and transparency.

My first target was Jupiter there were still a few tube currents but the view was fairly good. With several bands visible some nice detail. 

I decided to move onto Epilson Aries (A close pair, at 1.3~1.4”) I was pleased to be able to split it at x150. This gave me confidence that the seeing was pretty good. 

As it was close by I thought I would stop by Uranus. A pale grey/green disc at x150. 

As the transparency was good I thought I would have a try for M33. I have never seen it from my various home locations, but being in bottle 4 area and the clear sky I thought it would be worth a shot. To my pleasant surprise I located it and a clear glow in the eyepiece was apparent. Didn’t see much detail but pleased to have achieved the observation. I will return to M33. 

A had few doubles on my list and the first one on the list was STF76 a fairly close pair of white and blue/grey. 
The next double was STF89 a fairly wide pair so nice and easy.
I moved onto my next double STF96 it is a  very close pair that took x200 to split.

My next target was STF109. A fairly close pair but splittable at x50. The primary being white and the secondary being pale blue. 

By now Orion was clearing the houses and as the seeing was pretty good I thought I would try for the E&F components. At x200 they were quite clear to see. It is the first time I have seen the F component clearly. The nebula itself was showing superb detail. 

I moved briefly onto M37 and to M35 and to my surprise NGC2158 and IC2157 were also clearly visible.

My final 2 targets were
STF115 and STF116
On the way there I stopped off at the Owl Cluster. If you squint and use your imagination you see to bright ‘eyes’ and the ‘wings’ made of trails of Stars.
STF115 AB is a very tight pair not clearly split at x300. The secondary was illusive.
STF116 is a much wider pair of yellow and blue. 

All in all a very good session with some nice firsts

Cheers

Ian 
 

11 hours ago, John said:

Glad it's clear in South Somerset. It's rather cloudy here in North Somerset with only one or two stars peeking through from time to time. A bit disappointing after last night 🤨

Glad you are having a good one though, Ian 🙂

John, I can see your cloud problem, hopefully they will blow through today.

Cheers

Ian

The cloud seems to be pushed.to the East tonight. It's cold but I hope it stays like this for a few nights

Cheers

Ian

Cracking night tonight. Nothing like a cold blast to give decent seeing and transparency. Observed a few more doubles including one very tight pair, also saw a few new faint fuzzies just defrosting a bit at the mo. 

Cheers

Ian

Hopefully there is a change of weather coming this week and you can do some imaging 😀

Cheers

Ian

If I am using my EQ6 is use the handset. For the 200mm dob I use the method I have always used which is very similar to John's method. I some,times use a star atlas but more frequently use Sky Safari. 

I will usually start with a bright star and see if my target is in line with another brightish star. I often use triangular asterisms to 'point the way' or 2 fairly bright stars. I will multiple the distance between  the stars e.g. 3x the distance and then up or down a bit. One word of warning is sky safari can be slightly inaccurate if you are looking for faint doubles. 

Cheers

Ian

When I first got back into Astronomy I lived in a Bortle 8 area. It will impact what you can see but there are still plenty to see. 

The Moon, planets, star clusters both Open and Globular and my particular favourites double stars. I've observed 2500 pairs so plenty too see

Your scope is a good model and will show you plenty of objects.

The most important thing is to use the scope and enjoy it.

The advice from GrumpiusMaximus is spot on.

cheers

Ian

Same here, some cloud blowing through but clear periods. The seeing is average at best but some reasonable detail on Jupiter and the GRS is reasonably visible. 

Also had a look at STF76 a tight faint pair. Not a clear view, one to return too in better conditions

cheers

Ian

I had noticed the dob had slipped down in the rings a bit so the balance was out. Despite the met office saying it was heavy cloud it was quite clear so I took the opportunity to view the Moon after rebalancing the scope, Clavius looked excellent at x200, loads of detail. 😁

Cheers

Ian