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Simple pleasures


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Lovely and clear earlier but the all important factor of course is the seeing, what would it be like. I'd setup earlier and found myself at the eyepiece of a well cooled 5" scope at 2100 looking at Jupiter at 180x. The seeing, while not as good as the 19th in general was pretty darn good with some moments of excellent quality. 

GRS was approaching the preceding limb, slightly salmon coloured whereas the other day it was distinctively orange - a result of an extra inch of aperture perhaps. A barge in the centre of NEB was very prominent and perhaps 2 festoons following GRS. I followed GRS as it disappeared off the limb for over an hour while twilight started its slow transition to darkness. I intended to pop indoors for the sketchpad but I was captivated. 

Onto the rest of the sky, just panning around looking for the early risers. Regulus, Arcturus, Spica, Procyon near the horizon, Alkaid near the zenith, Denebola, Cor Coroli. filling in the yet to arrive members of their respective constellations in my mind. 

Without a doubt, the star of this show being Algieba - Gamma Leonis. Double star observers will no doubt be familiar with this little beauty. An easy split with separation of 4.7", the primary and secondary showing a lovely golden tone and the 1.4 magnitude difference giving a clear indication of which is the primary and the secondary, no field stars or orientation required. An interesting double as well as a pretty one. It's confirmed to have a planetary system and I spent more than a few minutes imagining travelling there before packing up for the evening.

I posted a rant last year about the lack of easy DSO observing at home. It doesn't matter. There's still plenty of exploring to be done. :happy2:

 

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Nice report I can feel your passion there (;

I like the double star Cor Caroli, it's always a nice target, good pick.  A few days ago I discovered Virgo Porrima, another really nice double star, if you don't know it already, this one too is worth watching.

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Lovely report John. Jupiter is giving some improved views lately, well at least we can see it without constant cloud! Like you I've been find some pleasing detail when the seeing steadies. There are definitely a number of festoons hanging around in various places so I'm pretty sure you caught them.

I've noticed variation in GRS recently too and have put it down to varying conditions, transparency I guess. I think it's was Mikedknight who also suggested there had been Saharan sand in the atmosphere too which may have caused some dimming it it but that was a week or so ago.

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Certainly dust or haze seems to change the colour of the GRS, at least with my eyes and scopes!

Algieba is a lovely pair, isn't it? A good one to show to newcomers at outreach sessions, as it always looks the same orangey-yellow colour!

Chris

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