Moonlight doubles and a little more

[John]

Very bright harvest moon last night so I used my lovely Takahashi FC-100DL to view some of my favourite double stars, mainly. Targets included:

- Pi Aquillae

- Epsilon Lyrae

- Beta Cygni (Alberio)

- Mu Cygni

- Lambda Cygni (waisted pair rather than a clean split on this occasion)

- Gamma Andromedae (even more colourful than Albrieo IMHO)

- Epsilon Persei (delicate pair with big brightness difference, rather exquisite)

- Iota Cas (one of my very favourite multiple stars)

With the exception of Lambda Cyg, all split with surgical precision by the fine flourite doublet objective and looking like illustrations from a textbook on optics

I also had a look at the tiny pale blue disk of Neptune, some open clusters and asterisms including the always generous double cluster in Perseus, the coathanger asterism  AKA: Brocchi's Cliuster in Vulpecula (seen best in the 6x30 RACI finder on this occasion I think) and also picked out the globular cluster Messier 15 in Pegasus and the Blue Snowball planetary nebula (NGC 7662) which had a surprisingly blue tinge to it despite the bright moon.

Finally I turned the scope on the moon itself and found that there was still a very thin rim of terminator showing with shadowed craters and other formations which could be traced around 50% of the edge of the lunar disk.

Actually the lunar views were not quite the end of the session because I spotted a bright and lonely star glimmering very low down between the houses on my SE horizon. This was Formalhuaut in the constellation of the southern fishes - Piscis Austrini. A very interesting bright white star and at 27 light years not too distant.

Nice evening in the lunar glow

 

[chiltonstar]

Excellent stuff John! I was out too, on the same mission. I was surprised at the good seeing and transparency - very little haze, so many stars could be seen. I concentrated on a new (to me) double-double, viz. Eta Draconis and Struve 2054 (a "Sissy" double). Both could be clearly split with the 180 Mak despite the mag differences and well worth a try on a night when the Moon is about!

Amazing how loud a Tawny Owl can be when it's sitting in a Scots Pine about 50m away and calling non-stop!

Chris

[Scooot]

Nice report John, I was out constellation hunting with my 8x42s, although I think I might have glimpsed m15.

[jabeoo1]

Nice one John.  Lovely accounts of the action. 

[wookie1965]

Great report John I`m going try those doubles in the Tal see how it performs.

[Astro Imp]

Nice report John.

Interested to read your comparison of Albireo and Almach to which I concur but got gales of laughter when mentioned to another experienced observer.

[AstroKerr]

Nice! Haven't split neither Almach nor Albireo - just cruisin' in the 20~30x to get familiar star hopping - but now I've something to go investigate.

[Paz]

Nice report and a good reminder that there's lots to see even when the moon is up.