So steady tonight, but...

[F15Rules]

After today's lovely warm weather today I was really looking forward to a good session tonight..I got out at midnight once everyone had gone to bed and it was properly dark.

However, as soon as I went outside, I was disappointed to see quite a bit of high cloud,  but there were still lots of stars visible, so I got set up and started with Gamma Leonis (Algieba) with a great easy split with lots of clear sky between the two components at 130x in the Speers Waler zoom at 8mm. After watching captivated for a minute or so the image suddenly went very dim and a section of cloud moved in.

I looked behind me and there was good clear sky in the vicinity of Lyra, so I lined up on Vega for my first proper look of this summer. One of my favourite bright stars, and I always look for the 10th magnitude faint optical companion..sure enough, there it was, at c 8 o'clock to the south west of Vega itself (refractor view with N/S normal and E/W reversed). Then on to Epsilon, the double double, and this time I used the binoviewer with a pair of 15mm plossl at x70. I could just make out the split, but before I could take a proper look the cloud again moved in. 

I could now see much more cloud with just some holes here and there..at that point Hercules was clear, so I moved over to M13  and was rewarded with a stunning view of the glob at x130 in the SW UWA again (I must say that viewing a glob like this in an 80 degree field is a bit special!).

I then switched to see what the view was like in the binoviewer and...yes, the wretched cloud was back.. I then noticed that Bootes was now visible, so off I went to see Izar. In the binoviewer the view was as good as any I have seen of this wonderful double, and just SO comfortable to gaze at. I just looked at the lovely image for a good five minutes, and the seeing whilst viewing this system was the steadiest of tonight's short session. And, of course, just as I was about to up the power, in came the cloud again!

At that point, and with about 75 % or more cloud cover by now I decided to pack up after being out for just an hour, and observing for less than half of that time. It was a real shame, as it was a lovely mild night and the sky was pretty steady, and it seemed, getting better and better.

Ah well, off to bed to dream of another session with completely clear skies for 3 hours in which I split 20 or more tight doubles!

Night all🙂

Dave

[John]

Nice dream Dave !

I had a similar night here with the 130 refractor

 

[Saganite]

Same as Dave, almost in the same order, and the seeing was very good here also...

[F15Rules]

 Thanks John and Steve.. frustrating, wasn't it?😏

Another couple on my list for last night were Gamma and Theta Virginis, so if clear tonight I will try for them both. Gamma (Porrima) is a nice close 2.55" while Theta is a faint and fainter triple system..

"The inner pair (a spectroscopic binary) is orbited by the 9.4 magnitude B component, at an angular separation of 7.1 arcseconds. A fourth component C, 69.6 arcseconds away, has an apparent magnitude of 10.4"- credit: Wikipedia. This should be a different but interesting challenge 😉.

It was a very warm evening here, and I could hear lots of night noises around me..fish and frogs plopping in the pond, an owl hooting, and a cat setting off our sensor light on the drive. 

Maybe we will be lucky tonight. It should certainly be a warm one too

Dave

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by F15Rules

[Saganite]

38 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

 Thanks John and Steve.. frustrating, wasn't it?😏

Another couple on my list for last night were Gamma and Theta Virginis, so if clear tonight I will try for them both. Gamma (Porrima) is a nice close 2.55" while Theta is a faint and fainter triple system..

"The inner pair (a spectroscopic binary) is orbited by the 9.4 magnitude B component, at an angular separation of 7.1 arcseconds. A fourth component C, 69.6 arcseconds away, has an apparent magnitude of 10.4"- credit: Wikipedia. This should be a different but interesting challenge 😉.

It was a very warm evening here, and I could here lots of night noises around me..fish and frogs plopping in the pond, an owl hooting, and a cat setting off our sensor light on the drive. 

Maybe we will be lucky tonight. It should certainly be a warm one too

Dave

 

I have had a few nights of really steady seeing in the last week or so. 

Incredibly, I have never seen Mercury and I set up last night for a rehearsal for 21/22 . I got the beautiful calm crescent of Venus but by the time it was dark enough there were too many obstacles, houses fences etc to see Mercury and I  could not find it in the fading evening sky though I tried, but had superb views of Venus.

I will take my FC100 across to the playing fields I think, as I don't want to miss the conjunction.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Saganite

[John]

I actually found last night pretty steady. Zeta Herculis still looked well defined at 600x with my 130mm triplet refractor. Nice round primary and secondary of differing tones rather than the "blob stuck to the side" look that this pair can have sometimes.

 

 

[F15Rules]

3 hours ago, John said:

I actually found last night pretty steady. Zeta Herculis still looked well defined at 600x with my 130mm triplet refractor. Nice round primary and secondary of differing tones rather than the "blob stuck to the side" look that this pair can have sometimes.

 

 

That's superb magnification John..what eyepiece/combination of did you use?

Dave

[John]

15 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

That's superb magnification John..what eyepiece/combination of did you use?

Dave

Nagler 2-4mm zoom. Just kept clicking down the .5 mm increments .....

If it had been the Moon it would have been "floater city" I would think though

The weird thing is, when I backed off to 3mm or 4mm and "took it easy" the scope was still way above "50x per inch"

[F15Rules]

I can quite believe the Lzos can take over 100x of aperture, superb optics.

I think if we were living somewhere like Arizona, we'd all be able to exploit our scopes optics far more, and push them to their limit more often than we ever can here..😏

Dave