"Triple Double" In Orion, And Other Things

[cloudsweeper]

Monday 27/11 - cold, windy, cloudy - but still took the ST120 out for a look at Luna, just past first quarter.  Copernicus looked good right on the terminator, with Montes Apenninus stretching away to the east, with the Apollo 15 Site near the end.  The Moon was nicely framed at x100, but lost sharpness and began to shimmer at x200.  x150 was a good compromise.

Fast forward to 1.40am, Tuesday 28/11 - the Moon had done her round, the sky was quite clear, and the wind had died down.  (I ignored the traces of hailstone all over the ground!)  Took a quick look at M42 and the Trapezium, then enjoyed the whole of Orion's Belt and then Sword, both at x14.

The bottom of his Sword is an interesting region.  There we have Hatsya (or Nair al Saif), a quadruple, comprising a spectroscopic triple plus one, appearing as a bright star with a very close, faint companion.  To the west of this lies a pretty arc of four bright stars.  

Then looking below, there are two close pairs - the tight double SAO 132301/132298, and a similarly tight, fainter optical double.  They looked like a double-double of two non-parallel pairs, and with Hatsya above, the whole (seen together at x200) looked like a triple-double!  Very pleasing.  Sharper at x150.

I then started at the orange Betelgeuse, and hopped to Mu Ori, then Nu and Xi Ori, with the "37 Cluster" lying below, the "37" appearing reversed, of course.  I took the mag up to x100 for this, then back to x14, and on to F1 and F2 Ori, 64 and X2 Ori, ending with 1 Gem and Propus showing the way to the lovely open cluster M35 above the latter two.  And there I lingered, enjoying the tight, dense array with the mag up a bit to x55.  Dropping back a little to x25 framed the cluster beautifully, and sharpened everything up, as well as clearly showing the rich cascade of stars tumbling south from M35.

A fabulous 90 minutes, demonstrating again that almost wherever you look - and linger - there are wonders to behold!

Doug.

 

[Stu]

Lovely one Doug. Must have looked at those stars hundreds of times without giving them the attention you did. I shall have a better look next time, have already followed your report in SkySafari, perfect descriptions  

[cloudsweeper]

Thanks Stu - glad you've been able to confirm it all.  It is sometimes easy to make a slip-up or be unsure, as there are various sources to use and they occasionally conflict or lack clarity.

Doug.

[Stu]

This is what I think your triple double and the arc of stars was....?

[cloudsweeper]

Spot on, Stu - plus the clear visible sign of Hatsya's close, faint companion, which is just discernible in your image (circled, top left).  So yes - a triple double.  Lovely!

Doug.

[F15Rules]

Lovely report Doug☺.

It was very cold, clear and breezy here last night and I had high hopes so got the Tak FS128 out.. what a letdown! I kid you not, I struggled to get a clear image at anything over x80 for most of the session!

The Double Double near Vega took x 104 with my Pentax XL 10.5mm to split both pairs, and even then they were wobbling in and out. On the other hand transparency was very good and I could see Vega's optical double (10th mag) companion with direct vision, no problem, even with the first quarter moon being so bright.

I also got some nice views of Luna itself but again wobbling like a jelly at much above x60 or so. Tried a couple of pics with my cheap Moto G android..it's SO difficult to take photos this way, keeping the phone steady etc...

On the plus side I did get to use my Pentax SMC zoom for most of the session and, for last night's session it was definitely the best choice, as I could just dial in the best magnification at a given time. I remember just one fleeting 20 second period when the double double settled a bit and the zoom showed twin bullseye's with a nice dark background (taking into account the sky brightness). And then it was mushy again!

For the last 10mins of the session I switched to my new Opticron Adventurer II 10x50s, and quite honestly they suited my local conditions last night better than the Tak. Lovely low power views of Pleiades, Hyades, Aldebaran (great colour rendition) and just some general sweeping.

It was just nice to get outside again!

I'll checkout those Orion goodies on a better night Doug..but glad you had better conditions, thanks for sharing your observations..?

Dave

[cloudsweeper]

Thanks Dave.  Conditions were quite good, and not all that cold.  And I do like using the old ST, swinging about the sky, finding the way across star patterns, and above all, enjoying the magnificent wide angle, low mag views before moving in for closer looks!

Doug.

[Stu]

Dave, those lunar images look pretty good to me, given the conditions.

[scarp15]

Nice read of a fine session Doug. I just lingered on the moon for a brief period, lovely phase, its good to compare notes with yourself and other reports such as that posted by John and clarifying some of the details, other than just referencing from my Astronomy Now moon map. Weather has broken here today, wind and rain.

[cloudsweeper]

Thanks Iain, it was my first decent session in a while, what with the weather and a visiting relative.  And the ST120 gives me the opportunity of using my highest power EPs!

Doug.

[cotterless45]

Easiest way to see the alignment of the Orion stars (above) is to get to NGC 1980 and iota Orionis ( multiple) , aka Nair al Saif. These great open clusters never cease to amaze. M44 for instance has a large number of binaries,

Nick.

[domstar]

Great report. There's so much going on in Orion. I'll use your report to increase my target list.