Some Nice Doubles, A Carbon Star, A Crop Of Clusters

[cloudsweeper]

Just had two hours out with the 8SE.  Moon very bright - had a brief look at high mag to reduce the glare - crater on terminator (Pythagoras?) totally in shadow except for a point of light on the central peak.  Aligned 'scope on Capella and Aldebaran.

Spontaneity is good, but this was a planned session using Stellarium, atlases, etc., and doing just a little preliminary research.

A number of doubles proved elusive even at x145 and more.  This was I think due to a combination of cloud, the Moon, dimness of a companion, and not getting the mag right for the balance between sharpness and separation.

Then a run of successes!

UU Aur - a variable carbon star with a lovely orange colour.  It is a double, but I saw no hint of that.

41 Aur - a matched double, 7.5".  GoTo had been great for finding stars using the SAO numbers, but Stellarium didn't give one for this, so I used the SAO for a nearby star and did a bit of hopping!  It was clearly seen as a tight, bright, close double (easy, because the pair are matched) at x68, and looked nice as one corner of an equilateral triangle of stars.

Going to and from the 'scope was easy as it was bathed in moonlight!

Wasat (Gemini) - 2+1, visual double, 5.6".  Had to use AV to spot neighbouring stars and confirm identity.  The companion was very close and faint, but was split at x145.  Dropping to x113 sharpened things up (seeing).

38 Gem - 2+1, visual double, 7.1".  Faint, close companion clear at x68, split better at x113.

To finish I did a tour of the Auriga and Gemini clusters - M 35, 36, 37, 38.  M 36 - only the brightest stars seen, on account of the Moon; M 37 - much fainter (I thought GoTo had missed!); M 38 - more easily noticed; M 35 - the largest of the four, quite clear.  GoTo really comes into its own when taking in several targets like this - fast, and spot-on every time.

A very satisfying session indeed!

Doug.

[wookie1965]

I did the Auriga clusters last night as well very washed out and as you say only the brightest stars. I did quite a few Gemini doubles but for some reason i wrote the wrong SAO number down for 38. Its great doing doubles when seeing is not that good at least we are out there observing.

[Stu]

Good session Doug. Seeing for us was excellent last night, sounds like yours was only so so?

[cloudsweeper]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Good session Doug. Seeing for us was excellent last night, sounds like yours was only so so?

Yes, Stu - not great, which is probably why some doubles were a bit tricky, others not do-able.  But it's good to have a bit of a challenge, isn't it?

 

56 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I did the Auriga clusters last night as well very washed out and as you say only the brightest stars. I did quite a few Gemini doubles but for some reason i wrote the wrong SAO number down for 38. Its great doing doubles when seeing is not that good at least we are out there observing.

.....dead right.  We can keep going on doubles and carbons as long as we want.  And re-visiting clusters, of course!

Doug.