Delta Twins, & A Few Visual Doubles In Lyra

[cloudsweeper]

8SE again.  At 9.45, Jupiter was visible, naked eye.  In the 'scope, his belts were grey again after showing up brownish recently - probably a result of the generally poor transparency, despite a fairly clear sky.

Vega became visible, naked eye, at about 10.25, so it was time to go for a few doubles.

Sigma 2481 - quintuple, visual double, matched, 4.6".  Sky still not very dark, but this was easily split, though very close, at x56.  A matched pair, still rather faint of course.  Clearer x85.

Zeta 1,2 Lyr (Nasr Alwaki 1,2) - triple, visual double, 44".  A beautiful sight, closely matched in magnitude, and very easily split at x56.

Sigma 2333 - binary, close match, 6.4".  Good match, fairly close again at x56.

Delta Twins, Delta 1,2, Lyr - optical (line of sight) double about 10 minutes apart (although each one is a multiple in its own right), both in the small Delta Lyrae open cluster (Stephenson 1), Delta 2 the brightest member.  This was the highlight of the brief session, a fine spectacle, being a loose, sparse (over a dozen stars) cluster, dominated by the twins, and with Delta 2 showing a distinctly yellow hue.

To finish, I took a quick look at C16 (NGC 7243), an open cluster in Lacerta, one I hadn't yet visited - a loose grouping of about two dozen faint stars, pleasant but not outstanding.

Doug.

 

[Demonperformer]

Nice report, Doug. 

Steph 1 is a lovely cluster and has been a favourite of mine since I "stumbled" across it, years ago.

[Eastman]

Nice report Doug, I learnt something too. I never heard of the Delta Lyrae cluster (Stephenson 1), looked so many time at the Ring Nebula and the doubles in Lyrae. For sure going to take a better look at the Delta cluster next time.

 

[cloudsweeper]

7 minutes ago, Eastman said:

Nice report Doug, I learnt something too. I never heard of the Delta Lyrae cluster (Stephenson 1), looked so many time at the Ring Nebula and the doubles in Lyrae. For sure going to take a better look at the Delta cluster next time.

 

Glad to share the fun Gert!  The great thing about this pastime is that there is always something new to go for, and we will never see everything that's open to us.

Doug.

BTW - have stayed in Amsterdam, Breda, and Nijmegen - lovely places!

[cotterless45]

Excellent report ! Lyra is packed with multiple stars , lovely area to explore ,

Nick.