Doubles Old & New; Sharp Crescent Venus; Fine OC

[cloudsweeper]

8.00pm Tuesday, clear, still, and mild – ED80 Triplet ready and waiting, mounted on GoTo – looking forward to a session including wide views, sharp stars, and tracking!

Spotted Venus, high, west, just above trees.  What a beauty!  The sky was still light, so there was no glare, and the wide crescent was sharp and well defined – just like a mini crescent Moon.  x20, 40 used.

8.35 – I had the pleasure of seeing a prolonged display of skilful yet erratic flight by a bat.

8.40 – spotted Procyon, aligned on it.  One star alignment served me well.  GoTo put me on double star Regulus (Leo), which was still not visible, naked eye.  A few minutes later I saw Regulus’s very faint companion exactly where it should be at 10 o’clock, and well separated (since it’s 2.9 minutes) at x20 – a lovely, contrasted pairing.

Next double, Sigma 1431, Leo – 3.6” separation – very close to the brighter 44 Leo.  Going from x20 to x120, the faint companion appeared at 2 o’clock, very close to the primary.  The split pair looked very pleasing, standing well apart from 44 Leo in the FOV.

48 Cnc, Zubanah – binary, 31”.  This double stood at the top of an arrowhead of stars.  Its fainter companion was close by at 9 o’clock, x20, and the primary had a yellow hue.

A favourite – 16 Cnc, Tegmine – quintuple, visual triple, although I didn’t expect to see the companion at 1.1” separation, only the 6.6”, and so it was, with a close split at x60, and the slightly fainter companion at 1 o’clock.

A couple of Messiers to finish – M3 (glob, CVn), just a pale patch with the small aperture.  And finally, M44 (Beehive open cluster, Cnc) – loose, very sharp stars, mostly bright, and a fine spectacle with the >1.5deg object framed in a >4deg FOV.

Nice variety, new targets and old - a very enjoyable way to spend 2.5 hours!

Doug.

[mark81]

Nice session Doug.

Quite a few nice little doubles in Leo - much easier that's it's higher in the sky now.... and it's always nice to have a look at the Beehive.. one of my favourite binocular targets..

There always seems to be so much going on.. I saw Hercules rising last night at about 11ish, one area I always seem to miss out on, maybe somthing to with the late hour and the not so dark summer sky.... 

Have you had any time with that long Bresserr yet?

Clear skies

Mark

[domstar]

Very nice Doug. I didn't believe you last time and I didn't notice the ' instead of '' when it came to the separation of Regulus. (a bit like the Stonehenge in Spinal Tap). I'd been staring at Regulus looking for a 3 second split and ignoring the star at 10 o'clock about 3 arc-minutes away. One day I'll get the hang of things.

Thanks for clearing that up. I could be out there tonight but it looks a bit hazy for high-mag doubles. 

[cloudsweeper]

1 hour ago, mark81 said:

Nice session Doug.

Have you had any time with that long Bresserr yet?

Clear skies

Mark

Thanks Mark.  Yes - I've had 12 sessions with it, I like it a lot, and find it pleasingly easy to use, for its size!  It's the only 'scope I can readily use when sitting on a stool, which I also really like.

It's nice to ring the changes, and I get different experiences of course from each of my four 'scopes.  

Now.....how about mounting the AR127L on a suitable GoTo??  That would be good.  "In your dreams," says the wife!  😁

Doug.

[wookie1965]

A great session there I have not managed to get the 3rd component of Tegmine yet I keep trying though.