Quick Pisces Doubles Session Before Xmas Eve Dinner!

[cloudsweeper]

At 4.30pm it was unusually clear - had to remind myself what those silvery dots up there were!  First object - Mars - sharp red disc at low mag, the Dob was a bit wobbly at x190.

By 4.50pm, plenty of stars were out - the Great Square was prominent.

I got Epsilon Psc in the Rigel, then hopped to Zeta Psc, a (2)+(2)+1 system usually seen as a pair as the single star is very faint.  23" separation between the binary pairs.  Stellarium calls it all Revati, the name of one of the stars in those pairs.  Anyway, the two binaries were easily seen - close, but a clear split at x42.  Good match in brightness.

Next, a hop of about 4deg to S398 - 1+(2), 69".  A fair match, well separated at x42.

In the same 2deg FOV was O Sigma 31 - not matched, 4".  Tried various mags, but could not detect the faint companion, and anyway, I was on a deadline to get back inside so had to end at 6.00pm.  

Quite satisfying, and a pleasure to be under the stars again!

Doug.

[mark81]

Nice session Doug.  I like reading about these double star sessions and of course more with that Dob.  It was clear here too for the first time this month - but I left it too late, very misty now. 

Merry Christmas

Mark

 

[Astro Imp]

Nice one Doug.
Really misty here now.
Have a good Christmas and a successful 2019,

[Stu]

Good to get a crafty one in before dinner, nice report. No luck here unfortunately, but was pretty spent after last minute busy day getting everything done.

Happy Christmas! Thanks for all your great reports this year!

[Littleguy80]

Great stuff, Doug. I had a quick 10 minutes with the binoculars around the same time to make the most of the clear skies. Highlights were Comet Wirtanen and Kemble’s cascade. Merry Christmas!