Observations 6th January

[Knighty2112]

Had a chance last night with some clear skies to get my C8 SCT out on my 8SE goto mount for a couple of hours, before clouds rolled in. As my main brief was to view some more double stars I had previously drawn up a small list of doubles to view in Aries, along with one in Pisces too that I had missed on the 1st Jan. I didn’t do any sketches last night as I wasn’t up to that, but hoping to do some more tonight as long if the clear skies forecast materialise. Anyway, here’s a brief summary of what I saw last night;

Aries -

33 Ariertis - easy split with over 28 seconds for these 5.3 & 9.6 magnitude double pair with 18mm X-cel EP. 

Struve 178 (HD11386) - could just split this 3 second double of equal 8.2 magnitude with 18mm EP.

Mesarthim (Gamma Arietis) - beautiful double with 7.1 second gap between both 4.5 & 4.6 magnitude pair. 

Lambda Arietis (9 Ari) - massive split between these two unequal components of 4.6 & 6.7 magnitudes. 

 Struve 311 (Pi Arietis) - 7.9 magnitude companion seen easily with 10mm Delos EP.

Struve 394 (HD21437) - A & B components of 7& 8 magnitudes split easily with 10mm Delos, with a 6.8 second gap.

Pisces;

Alrischa ( Alpha Piscium) - tight 1.9 second double in Pisces. Seeing poor at high magnitudes, so could only make our companion in diffraction ring when seeing allowed.

 

A few other objects viewed;

Uranus - good sight in 10mm EP.

M42 - seen well with 10mm Delos.

NGC2301 - open star cluster in Monoceros.

Bodes - both galaxies not as good a view as the previous session views, so transparency wasn’t great.

R Leporis (Hind’s crimson star) - reddest star I've ever seen. Well worth hunting down below Orion.

 

Hoping for more clear skies tonight.  

[Astro Imp]

Nice report Gus, I really should pay more attention to doubles, we get plenty of encouragement from Nick ( @cotterless45 ).

[Knighty2112]

Yep! Nick certainly encourages us all to view those doubles!  

[Littleguy80]

Great report, Gus. I had a look at Hind’s Crimson star a couple of months back and was a little disappointed. Have since read that it’s a variable star with quite a wide range of magnitude. I think I caught it near it’s faintest. Must give it another go!

[Stu]

Nice report Gus, good to get out there!

[Knighty2112]

27 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Great report, Gus. I had a look at Hind’s Crimson star a couple of months back and was a little disappointed. Have since read that it’s a variable star with quite a wide range of magnitude. I think I caught it near it’s faintest. Must give it another go!

I believe it is supposed to be redder when it is dimmer, so if you catch it then you should see it much better. 

[cloudsweeper]

Nice one, Gus!  Christmas, clouds, visitors, and sickness have kept me idle for weeks - I've been like a caged beast and it's driving me (and Mrs. Sweeper) nuts!

Doug.

 

[Knighty2112]

Thanks Doug. Hope you are much better now so that you can attack the next dark clear sky with a vengeance!  

[DHEB]

On 2018-01-09 at 22:22, Littleguy80 said:

Great report, Gus. I had a look at Hind’s Crimson star a couple of months back and was a little disappointed. Have since read that it’s a variable star with quite a wide range of magnitude. I think I caught it near it’s faintest. Must give it another go!

Miu Cephei has only a ~1.5 mag range. I never found it too surprising in color either.

If you want to see a striking red star try T Lyr next spring. It is much dimmer than miu Cep though.