Observing report 15.04.2020 Nottingham

[Doc]

15.4.2020
Observing from back garden in Nottingham
Warm
No wind
Clave 80/1208 F15 refractor mounted on my DocMount
Selection of Clave eyepieces

Started observing as it got dark about 21.00

Wasat (Delta Gem) - 3.5/8.18 mags - AB 5.4" Sep - Was a very easy split using the 10mm Clave at x121, secondary is very dim and very small and the seperation seems larger then stated.

Al Kirkab (Kappa Gem) - 3.56/10.00 mags - AB 7.2" Sep - The companion at mag 10 seemed to be at the maximum of my scope. I only saw a glimpse of B once, it was incredibly small, best
view was with the 10mm Clave at x121.

38 Gem - 4.7/7.8 mags - AB 7.3" Sep - Very easy double to split, there is a clear difference in the brightness. The main star appeared white and the secondary appeared orange. 
Best seen in the 12mm Clave at x101.

Algieba (Gamma Leo) - 2.23/3.64 mags - AB 4.7" Sep - This was easy in all eyepieces, it's a stunner and appeared Yellow and white.

I star hopped over to Cancer as hardly any of it's main stars were visible and had a lovely view of M67. Then onto the Beehive Cluster in the same concellation. This was also fantastic
and the cluster looked great in either the 40mm Clave at x30 giving a FOV of 1.6° and the 55mm Clave at x22 with a FOV of 1.90°

Back onto the double stars with Iota Cancer - 4.01/5.99 mags - AB 30" sep - This is a striking pair of binary stars, they appeared yellow and blue and almost the same magnitude, Best seen 
in the 10mm Clave at x121.

Izar (Epsilon Bootes) - 2.5/4.81 mags - AB 2.9" sep - Quite a hard star to split, I could see an elongation with the 12mm Clave at x101 but I could only split this by using a 6mm Clave
giving a magnification of x201. I couldn't see any colour in the stars.

Over to Coma Benerices and the globular cluster M53, had great vies of this beauty which is 13 arc minutes in size and shines at mag 7.91. Best view was with the Clave 16mm giving a 
magnification of x76.

Over to Canes Venacti and the wonderful Cor Coroli - 2.89/5.52 mags - AB 19.3" sep - A massive difference in brightness, this was great in any eyepiece, appeared yellow and white.

Had a break ad looked at Venus for about 20 minutes. It's phase which was at 37% really stood out, it was a wonderful sight and I feel so lucky to have witnessed it.

Castor (Alpha Gem) - 1.58/2.97 mags - AB 5.1" Sep - A clear split using the 12mm Clave at x101, both appeared white in colour, I could also see two other stars mags 9 and 10 respectively
these were some distance away from AB.

Propus (Eta Gemini) - 3.3/6.15 mags - 1.6" sep - Coud only manage a elongated figure "8" split with my 4mm Clave at x302. The main star appeared slightly orange in colour.

Over to Auriga for the carbon star UU Auriga this is a very bright orange carbon star which is 1110 light years from Earth, it shines about mag 5.3. Within the same FOV are the doubles
STF 928 and 929 and also the double STT147.

STF928 (Auriga) - 7.3/8.6 mags - AB 3.5" sep - Very easy split using the 8mm Clave at x151, the main star had a hint of orange.

STF929 (Auriga) - 7.23/8.43 mags - 5.9" sep - Easy split with a slight orange tint to the main star, best in the 12mm Clave at x101.

STT147 (Auriga) - 6.8/8.7/9.8 mags - AB 42.7", AC 44.5" seps - Makes a lovely looking triangle, all components appear the same magnitude, no colour seen. There is a close star associated 
with component C but this is at 0.5" seperation so unseen by me. Best viewed in the 12mm Clave at x101

Errai (Gamma Cephi) - 3.2/7.3 mags - AB 1.8" sep - Very hard split, I only managed a slight bulge in the diffraction ring with the 6mm Clave at x201

Alfirk (Beta Cephi) - 3.23/8.63 mags - AB 14.1" sep - Easy to split for some reason I didn't write any information down for this double star.

Tyl (Epsilon Draconis) - 3.83/6.87 mags - AB 3.2" sep - Very hard to split but with perseverance I managed a split showing a black gap between the stars with my 6mm Clave at x201. 
Both stars appeared white.

Finished the night in Hercules looking at the globular clusters. Both M13 and M92 appeared bright but for some reason M92 had a brighter core and in fact looked better the M13 which
is rather strange.

Finished the observing session around midnight.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Doc

[wookie1965]

Great haul there loads of different colours and magnifications well done. 

[Stu]

Fantastic list of targets seen there Doc. I’ve had this post open on my phone since you put it up, waiting for a time when I could read it through properly which I’ve just done. I’ll give some of those a go at the next opportunity.

How was the seeing during the session? I was only a little surprised at the difficulty with Izar as I would think your scope would eat that for breakfast!

Thanks for the report.

[Doc]

If I recall correctly as it was 15 days ago the seeing was not that great, a little hazy, but it would only have been about 21.45 when I looked at Izar so not properly dark.