A Different Winter Albireo, A Dwarf Planet, And More

[cloudsweeper]

8SE, taken from the shed, so good and cool.  Aligned on Betelgeuse and Procyon.

Tegmine/16 Cnc - a quintuple system, visual triple - saw just two components, well matched, the third (1.1" separation) escaped me, even at x185, by which point things were getting blurred.

Zubanah/48 Cnc - a wide (31") Common Proper Motion pair (i.e. their period is so large that the motion does not appear to be orbital) - they appeared slightly blue-white and (the brighter star) slightly orange, very nice, which is why this double is also thought of as another Winter Albireo besides the "usual" one in CMa.

Sigma (Struve) 1254 (CNc) - a septuple system, visual quintuple within the Beehive Cluster M44.  Using SAO 098021 in GoTo, I spotted a pair of triangular formations, the eastern one being the target (SAO number confirmed with Stellarium).  Closer inspection revealed a  fourth, faint component, very near one of the brighter three stars.  

Ceres - I hopped to this from Sigma 1 Cnc (SAO 061102 used in GoTo).  My second asteroid (after Vesta).  It's the largest asteroid in the main belt, massive enough to be spherical (hence the designation dwarf planet), and has a diameter about equal to the distance between John O'Groats and Land's End.

Transparency was poor (misty Moon) and the Moon was near first quarter, so I wasn't expecting much by way of faint objects.  I nevertheless tried for the pair of galaxies NGC 5194 (M51) and NGC 5195 in CVn.  They only appeared as two close specks, and increasing magnification didn't make them any clearer.  So not a result there.

But overall it was a very satisfying session lasting two hours, under very cold conditions.

Doug.

[Knighty2112]

Nice going there Doug. Need to hunt down some more asteroids myself again too next time.  

[MarsG76]

Nice report of a obviously rewarding and relaxing night. 

The 8SE is a great scope....

 

[Nathan UK]

Nice report Doug.... Freezing tonight mate I've just came in like a block of ice

[cloudsweeper]

6 hours ago, Nathan UK said:

Nice report Doug.... Freezing tonight mate I've just came in like a block of ice

Thanks Nathan, and welcome back!  What did you see??

Doug.

[cotterless45]

Super report , we caught Ceres , lovely view,

Nick.

[wookie1965]

Cracking doubles there never seen any dwarf planets yet will have to check them out. 

[Nathan UK]

On 23 February 2018 at 08:32, cloudsweeper said:

Thanks Nathan, and welcome back!  What did you see??

Doug.

In alls honesty my friend not a lot..... I was too busy sussing out the goto function on my new little night fishing travel scope. 

Had a lovely view of the moons crators, the Pleiades cluster and a very faint dim view of the Orion Nebula .

its only a small scope Doug it's the Meade ETX 80 , not going to see a great deal compared to my other scope or some of the bigger ones you guys have but I have purposes for the little fella.

1: I got it for £100 so it was cheap 

2 :  it's very small and light

3 : at that price if it gets damaged when I take it night fishing I'm not going to be too hurt.....

so it's ideal for what I purchased it for.

sorry for the late reply & glad to be back

Nathan

[cloudsweeper]

You'll enjoy that 'scope, Nathan - GoTo is a great function, and (depending on the model), you'll have wide/very wide views.  You soon get used to setting it up, and remember you can do a "rough" alignment if you just want to track like when concentrating on the Moon.

Doug.

[Nathan UK]

Yes Doug I have wide field of views..... It's a 400mm achromatic so it shows a nice portion of the sky. Still trying to workout all this goto stuff tho as u know it's always been manual for me