More Aquila Doubles

[cloudsweeper]

The ED80 on GoTo has been used a lot lately, but I wanted more aperture and found the 8SE not very sharp for splitting doubles (maybe I should check the collimation), so I set the ST120 up.  Searching the sky with about 4deg of field is fairly easy, as long as there are plenty of guide stars about.

7.40pm - very clear - Jupiter low, west of south - Ganymede also on show.

8.00 - Saturn low, east of south - going from x20 to x60, it appeared like an eye, all in yellow.  

Hopped from Altair to Sigma 2644 Aql, binary, 2.5".  At x120, I got a good split of the matched stars, still looking very close.

Next, H 1 93 Aql, binary, 1.8".  At x150, the pair were very close, requiring AV to separate them.  Another close match in magnitudes.

Rst 4659 Aql, binary, 1.7".  Should have been quite easy like the previous one, but the pair were not well matched, so the faint companion showed up with the help of AV.

Finally, a hop from Aldulfin (Del) took me to the globular C47/NGC 6934 - not seen before, and hardly seen this time either!  A nearby star was identified, but the cluster was just a small patch in AV at x20.  (The Moon's approaching glare didn't help!)

9.40 - the nearly full Moon appeared from behind a house - too bright for detail, except at the shimmering limb, x200.

Finished at 9.55pm.  Some successes and variety.

Doug.

Edited September 14, 2019 by cloudsweeper

[cotterless45]

Brilliant ! Binaries are just so special , especially in a frac. Spent a few hours pointing away from the Moon , not easy ! Nick.

[cloudsweeper]

1 hour ago, cotterless45 said:

Brilliant ! Binaries are just so special , especially in a frac. Spent a few hours pointing away from the Moon , not easy ! Nick.

Yes Nick - addictive or what!?  The ST120 did well (better than the Cat and Dob I feel), but a quality 125 has caught my eye.  Now to break it to Mrs. Sweeper.....

Doug.

[Knighty2112]

30 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

The ST120 did well (better than the Cat and Dob I feel), but a quality 125 has caught my eye.  Now to break it to Mrs. Sweeper.....

Good luck with that one Doug!  

[wookie1965]

My Tal 4" performs really well on close binaries but the Meade 127 has thrilled me with splitting close binaries, aperture does work to an extent and that 120 will perform really well in favourable conditions, nice report a couple there I have wrote down thanks for posting.