NGC 2395, no hurry back.

[Guest]

Out with the scope (8 inch F6 Newt) for a wee look around.  Anyhow, actually spent most of the evening getting to grips with DSO Planner for which I finally stumped up 3 quid to dowmload the  increased databases.  Seems pretty good. You can input your telescope and eyepiece parameters then have an overlay indicating the FOV, seemed to be quite accurate.   Even so, still found myself going back to my Sky and Telescope Pocket Atlas. 

Visited theta Augria, double, but couldn't split it. I think the resolution of my scope is somewhere in the region of 4 seconds.

UU Aurgia, nice red carbon star,  getting to like these more and more. 

Back to NGC2169, saw the 37 first hand !

Castor, double, just about split at 5.2 seconds. 

Wasat in Gemini, double, just about split at 5.4 seconds with the 6mm.  Primary a red / orange, with a hint of red in the very faint secondary. (not sure what type of eyepieces I actually have,  but there are all the Vixen NLV FMC, 6, 12 & 25 mm)

Had a look at the Procyon system but I reckon all the secondaries are beyond my city sky.  From Procyon had look further up and noted NGC 2395 in the atlas, an open cluster.  A bit of star hopping  got me to a fairly washed out loose collection of stars, not much to see really.

Good fun as always. 

 

 

 

 

[John]

Nice report - it does sound fun

I believe Procyon is a really, really tough binary to split. Tougher than Sirius (which is pretty hard itself). I've had no luck with Procyon with my 12 inch dobsonian on occasions when I have been able to split Sirius.

Vixen NLV's are nice quality eyepieces. They were the forerunners to the current SLV series.

 

[Size9Hex]

6 hours ago, AstroCiaran123 said:

Visited theta Augria, double, but couldn't split it. I think the resolution of my scope is somewhere in the region of 4 seconds.

Nice report. Your 8" should be capable of splitting stars inside 1", subject to seeing conditions, good collimation, well cooled scope, and the "right’ stars - equal brightness, not too faint, not too bright, high in the sky. Give it a go! Theta Auriga is very uneven in brightness so it’s harder, but your scope should get it. In the real world, my 10" has never got near its theoretical limit, but splits very close to 1" are doable on a good night and your 8" should be pretty similar I’d bet.