A Pseudo-Messier, And More Doubles

[cloudsweeper]

Just a quick session with the 8SE again, looking north around Ursa Major.  (North not so good, quite light-polluted.)  And windy, making everything shudder!

M40 - an optical double, also called Winnecke 4 - one of three non-neb/glx/cluster M objects - the others are M24 (Sagittarius Star Cloud, a Milky Way patch) and M73 (a four-star asterism in Aquarius).  Apparently Messier was looking for a reported nebula when he spotted this one.  At x56, the two faint stars were well separated, 53".

70 UMa - a red/orange giant in the same FOV as the above - pale orange hue detected.

65 UMa - used the SAO number for GoTo - a septuple system (rare, as they tend to break up) - visual triple, 3.7" and 63".  At x56, two stars were well separated, but the third visual component was rendered difficult as tree branches obscured the view!

23 UMa - a double, 23" - again, easily separated at x56, one very faint.

FF UMa - in the same FOV as the above - an eruptive variable, hint of orange coloration.

I finished with M81 and M82.  The former was quite clear, better at x113.  The latter was very faint.  Good to be able to see these galaxies in a polluted part of the sky, and with the near-full Moon rising.

Just 80 minutes, but quite satisfying.

Doug.

 

[Knighty2112]

Nice one Doug!   

[alan potts]

Sorry I missed this one, where is all the clear sky coming from, not that I feel you don't deserve it over there. We had a week clear but it has clouded over a bit, things move more slowly over here as we don't tend to get much in the way of wind.

Nice report on some nice targets.

Alan

[cloudsweeper]

7 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Sorry I missed this one, where is all the clear sky coming from, not that I feel you don't deserve it over there. We had a week clear but it has clouded over a bit, things move more slowly over here as we don't tend to get much in the way of wind.

Nice report on some nice targets.

Alan

Thanks again Alan.  I seem to have done quite well lately since it got colder, but even then, a clear sky doesn't last any great length of time!

Doug.

[cotterless45]

Lovely report , I usually end up going to Bode's . Quite often it opens out with more detail than expected,

Nick.