Pushing 200mm.

[cotterless45]

Set up the OO 200f6. Tightly collimated and checked all over ! Watching the skies there were sporadic , but long meteors from the northern quadrant. Checked out Psi Cassiopeiae, a very bright and clear split to the faint companions. Nice testing opener.

Turned to some right close binaries to see what a bit of aperture and very still air could do.

6 Cassiopeiae (SAO 020869) gave a rock steady 1.5" split. A single straight across secondary vane making stars without diffraction spikes.

Bu 394 , (SAO 36427)the brightest star in the low power field. What a surprise to get it cleanly opened at x320. I use old school Vixen triplet Barlow and 7.5 Ultima. This was a steady .8".

ΟΣ 507 ( SAO 20866) Split at x320, again the brightest star in the field holds a lovely secret! There's an optical field star some 8" to compare. 

Bu 235 (SAO 22060) gave a steady and much wider 1.1" for comparison. This is the sort of stuff that keeps me going at 1.30 ! Followed this up with 

 Σ7 (SAO 21191 ,1.3"), Σ96 ( SAO 11631, 8") and Bu 870 (SAO 22566,1.1")

For those still awake , there's a few more to polish off yet !

Σ234,ΟΣ50,ΑR Cass. and Σ3047.

Ending up with a cracking view of the great glow and core of Comet 21p Gio. in Cassiopeia. Clouds slowly drifted in , ending a most spectacular session of targets that I'd tried with smaller aperture, clear skies ! Old Nick.

[wookie1965]

Cracking session Nick and great sketches I am getting rid of my 8" too heavy lift on the mount.

[Patbloke]

I set up Black Beauty (120 Equinox Pro) on the AVX getting ready to rock and roll - Yep! the clouds rolled in, felt like rain almost it was that dark... Packed away then went in for a bit, came outside to clear skies, lovely!!! Got the Apollos out on the monopod absolutely beautiful views of the areas and targets surrounding Cassiopeia (No comet though) I must use those bins more often it's a fabulous way to tour the skies... Then within minutes of being outside my daughter whatsapp video calls from Oz...

I go inside take the call my hilarious Grandchild showing me the car (again) I bought last time there in March... Great call! we are all getting ready to go Thursday then onto Bali for the other daughters wedding (state wedding as we had the legal on last week in London) Yes I'm filled with the usual excitement hopefully get those Apollos on those incredible southern skies!! Ok whatsapp call over back outside whereupon I was greeted by complete cloud cover! Ya gotta laugh... According to my extremeley crazy weather app there's a clear sky here from 22:00 - tonight until 01:00 tomorrow. So Apollos & monopod are on standby, and maybe, just maybe - Black Beauty will get her third outing!!!

[Pig]

Great session Nick....  ? sounds like a wonderful night.

 

[chiltonstar]

Some interesting ones there Nick, a good session! I was a little intrigued by BU 394 which was a new one to me - I found it in Stelle Doppie for example, but not CDSA. A good one to test optics on with the very close double, and the faint third member of the triplet nearby.

Nicely resolved (5/5 seeing) with the 180 Mak last night on my way past Cass towards Mars , although my neighbour's security light was flashing on and off and ruining my view of anything N.

Chris

[cotterless45]

Fear not , there's bucket loads in Cassiopeia, these are a few  off the beaten track.AR Cass. is just a showpiece.. Find enclosed the field within one degree of Caph. From dark sites , it looks very busy !

Good hunting ! Nick.

[Stu]

Great session Nick! Impressive stuff, have never found splitting tight doubles that easy with a newt, you've clearly got it collimated very well!