October sweet spot

[domstar]

Nine sessions in October. It's the month with probably the best balance of dark evenings verses comfortable temperature. I was able to drive somewhere darker, survive the cold and be tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour. The highlights were some wonderful views of the Andromeda Galaxy in widefield and the Veil.

Half my sessions were from my balcony looking at double stars. After initially being put off by the amount of work needed to use the Cambridge Double Star Atlas, I've finally come to love it. I've been particularly inspired by Doug @cloudsweeper 's small reports on double stars and have had a wonderful time researching them, finding them and trying to split them. Al Salib in Delphinus has long been a favourite but I'd never noticed the other double in the field. They were especially beautiful at 50x as was alpha Hercules. However, most of the doubles I observed were in the higher part of Aquarius and Aquila. Matched, unmatched, bright, dim, tight, wide. Σ 2936 (HIP 112153) in Aquarius was particularly satisfying- 7 and 9.6 magnitude with a 4.2'' separation. I could just split it at 100x but the secondary was too dim at 150x. I managed it on Wednesday but not on Thursday - a small obscure star and despite it being recorded in an atlas, it felt like I was the only person on Earth looking at it.

There are many facets to stargazing and my month of doubles tested my research, star-hopping and observation skills and gave my sessions focus and the satisfaction of finding new objects.

Thanks for reading.

Dominic

 

[cloudsweeper]

Nice work and a good report, Dom!  Yes, this is a great time of year - I got 11 sessions in in October.  As for doubles, they really are a fascinating class of object - very addictive.  CDSA is an indispensable aid in that respect.  Haas (Double Stars for Small Telescopes) is a good backup, and includes line-of-sight examples, with florid descriptions.

I've got some interesting targets lined up, and I'll be out again when the rain stops!

Doug.

[Stu]

Good stuff Dom, glad you have had a successful month. Doubles are excellent targets, and Doug is a fine role model to follow for getting out there whenever there is a chance!

[domstar]

He certainly is, Stu. I'm amazed I got within 2 of his observation count.

As for Haas, Is it true that there's no map just coordinates? That's way out of my league at the moment. It's difficult enough with a map, especially as the stars have different names in the CDSA to stellarium. It was my first go at star-hopping from a paper map (Orion doubles are usually easy to find) and I found it challenging but I got a real kick out of it. I felt like a beginner again hoovering up new objects. 

[Stu]

20 minutes ago, domstar said:

He certainly is, Stu. I'm amazed I got within 2 of his observation count.

As for Haas, Is it true that there's no map just coordinates? That's way out of my league at the moment. It's difficult enough with a map, especially as the stars have different names in the CDSA to stellarium. It was my first go at star-hopping from a paper map (Orion doubles are usually easy to find) and I found it challenging but I got a real kick out of it. I felt like a beginner again hoovering up new objects. 

Have you looked at Skysafari Dom? There may well be an import for a Sissy Haas observing list, and CDSA is definitely there as I checked. Makes star hopping much easier.

[cloudsweeper]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

Have you looked at Skysafari Dom? There may well be an import for a Sissy Haas observing list, and CDSA is definitely there as I checked. Makes star hopping much easier.

You're way ahead of me with this approach, Stu - I should get up to speed!  

Dom - another way to locate targets is to take the SAO numbers from CDSA, then enter them into the search box on Stellarium to see exactly where they are, then hop away.  (When using GoTo, I just enter those numbers into the handset and get more or less on target, much easier I must say!)

[Haas - no charts, just RA and Dec coords..]  

Doug.

..........................later:  Got it!  Under Observe in SS - import list of 108 objects from CDSA.  On balance, I'll stick with my own planning and using SAO numbers, but it's good to be familiar with what can be done!

Edited November 2, 2019 by cloudsweeper

[Stu]

3 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

You're way ahead of me with this approach, Stu - I should get up to speed!  

..........................later:  Got it!  Under Observe in SS - import list of 108 objects from CDSA.  On balance, I'll stick with my own planning and using SAO numbers, but it's good to be familiar with what can be done!

I like the ability to highlight all the targets in a list, makes it easy to see which ones will be visible for you.

[domstar]

14 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

another way to locate targets is to take the SAO numbers from CDSA,

I don't seem to have SAO numbers mostly sigma and then a number or sometimes beta and then a number. I'm confused and maybe I'm missing something.

[cloudsweeper]

4 hours ago, domstar said:

I don't seem to have SAO numbers mostly sigma and then a number or sometimes beta and then a number. I'm confused and maybe I'm missing something.

Sigma, Beta, etc. refer to DS catalogues - see appendix.  The numbers and Greek letters (on the left) are just star designations, regardless of DS catalogues.

SAO numbers are down the right-hand column, very useful.  (See photo.)  Mine is the 2nd Edition - I seem to recall that the earlier edition did not include them.

Confusion cleared, I trust!!

Doug.

[domstar]

@cloudsweeper  Thanks very much. Yes, I was missing something. I can now cross reference with stellarium.