A Tight Double, 6 Moons, 2 Pairs Of Open Clusters

[cloudsweeper]

7.40pm, sky clear, Jupiter appeared low, east of south. Big AR 127L frac put to use – a bulky beast, but once set up, very easy to use. Jupiter’s NEB and SEB were clear, and three of his moons. Io was in transit, but was not spotted, of course. (Later it appeared just off the limb.)

Saturn – east of Jupiter – rings good and open, Cassini Division clear, also NEB, and (on the east side) the shadow of the disc cast onto the rings. Titan was easily seen above Saturn, and the slightly dimmer Rhea popped in and out of view with AV. Used x150 – much higher and the view became blurry.

Early on, there weren’t many stars on show to use as starting points, except Tarazed.  With that altitude, I was able to sit comfortably on a stool and enjoy the fine, crisp star images.  A short hop led to 52 Aql, two 6th mag stars with a nominal separation of just 1.3”.  I just split it at x240 – the slightly fainter companion was at about 4 o’clock.  Very pleasing!

The close open clusters in Aquila NGC 6756/6755 were an easy hop from Almizan I. The latter OC was the brighter, but showed as just a few loose and faint stars.

And so to the better known pair of OCs in Perseus NGC 869/884, which I sat and enjoyed for a while through the 20mm 100deg Myriad, giving x60 and 1.67deg of field.

Just over 2.5 hours of mixed observing with a fine telescope.

Doug.

Edited September 18, 2020 by cloudsweeper

[Kimboman]

I also  took my Celestron 6se to a local darkish site and had good views of Jupiter and 3 moons , also viewed Saturn with the one clear moon but the sky was starting to cloud over

I also viewed mars but it was very low with little detail all in all it was very enjoyable.

3 passers by walking their dogs enquired as to what I was doing showed them Jupiter and Saturn and they were blown away perhaps 3 new converts???