Cracking Seeing !!!!

[John]

I've just been having a quick amble around the double stars in Orion now that my ED120 refractor has cooled down.

The seeing seems to be absolutely top notch here currently 

Text book high power star images. A real pleasure to observe Rigel, Alnitak, E & F Trapezium, etc, etc.

Really clean split of 52 Orionis at 360x !!!! - 2.5mm setting with the 2mm-4mm Nagler zoom. Steady as well - wafer thin dark thread between the airy disks.

Dawes limit for the scope is .97 arc second and I believe 52 Orionis is around 1 arc second in separation so no complaints at all here

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by John

[Pixies]

Cloudy here.  But might get some clear spells around midnight.

[Mr Spock]

Completely different to me. Seeing is dreadful again. I can barely make out an airy disk - it's buried in a handful of scintillating diffraction rings.

[Starwatcher2001]

I've been out doing exactly the same thing: doubles in Orion. Sky quite hazy at times and could only find the 4 main stars in the trapezium. Spent some time with Meissa (lambda). A-B took 147x to split. Found C,D,E, but F eluded me. I'll have to try again at a later date. Found A and B in Iota (Nair al Saif) and think I found C, but it seemed a lot further away than my notes say it is. I'll have to check that one.  With Orion being pretty much South, the positional angles are easier to work with (on an Alt-Az mount). Looked at Struve 747 which I can't recall seeing before. Thoroughly enjoyable evening, despite a full moon, Bortle 7 and neighbours lights on.

 

[chiltonstar]

Good seeing here, but haze plus Moon wiped out all but the brightest stars. Good to see Vega rising in the NE, even if it was twinkling madly. Mr and Mrs Fox seemed to be enjoying the nearly full Moon, or maybe it was one of my neighbour's hens.

Chris

Edited February 28, 2021 by chiltonstar

[Stu]

Sounds great John, a night to enjoy. Fairly middling here, not disastrous but not as good as yours. I just stuck with the Moon and had fun trawling up and down the thin terminator.

[Littleguy80]

My frac has only really been used for white solar in recent months. It was still clear around 11:30pm when Mrs LG went to bed so decided to take the frac out. Started out playing around finding the Messier clusters in Auriga, then the Eskimo. Had a real battle to see anything of M51 but thoroughly enjoyed that challenge. After that I decided it was time for the Moon. Used the Nag zoom then switched to the Vixen HR 3.4mm as the seeing looked good. Really lovely crisp views. I’d forgotten how good this little scope is. It was only when I went inside for another eyepiece that I even realised it was foggy. The Moon was still showing well through the haze. Have a real nice buzz from a happy hour or so with the scope. 

[Epick Crom]

Good report John. Sounds like you had a great time! It's always a blessing when seeing is that good. Clear skies!

[wulfrun]

I sat on a chair in the garden for a couple of hours, armed with the binoculars and ducking by the fence to escape the moon's brightness. I was 50/50 about a scope, the full moon was washing a lot out and although it looked fairly steady seeing here it was very hazy. To the point that you could see the light-cone from nearby streetlights. Still enjoyable just perusing, with no set agenda!

[wookie1965]

Nice report John E & F I have only ever seen once in a 150p I had when I first started since then they have eluded me.