Leo Double Double And Others

[cloudsweeper]

8.25pm Friday – very clear – ED80 Triplet on GoTo for widefield and locating/tracking – Sirius and Procyon on show.

8.40 – aligned on Procyon and Regulus.

Leo Double Double – 83 Leo and Tau Leo – 28 and 89 arcsecs – pairs under 0.5deg apart, Tau is a line-of-sight pairing.  Easily seen at x13, 5.4deg, sparse field.  See sketch.  The Barlowed zoom made the 83 Leo pair clearer.

Sigma 1399 Leo – 7^th and 8^th mags, 31 arcsecs – sky not very dark, but the pair were easily seen at x13, fainter secondary at 7 o’clock.

Sigma 1379 Leo – 7^th and 10^th mags, 10 arcseconds - not in handset, went via Subra – used zoom to increase contrast, but saw no secondary because of small aperture and not very dark sky – confirmed with next object, 9^th mag,  which was only just visible.

Sigma 1448 Leo – 7^th and 9^th mags, 11 arcseconds – split using zoom again, very faint secondary at 10 o’clock.  About 0.75deg NW of this was what I assume to be a line-of-sight pair, including SAO 81399 – nicely split with the zoom, a fine pair of 8^th mag stars, one above the other.

Sigma 1529 Leo – two 7^th mag stars, 8.9 arcseconds apart – zoom again (very useful!) – a beautiful matched pair of eyes at the apex of an almost equilateral triangle of stars.

I finished with a quick look at M44, the Beehive Cluster, x13, x24 – very nice.

A couple of hours in all, very successful and enjoyable.  Thank goodness for doubles and clusters (and Luna), since a poor sky and stray lights everywhere rule out many galaxies and nebs.

Doug.

[Littleguy80]

Nice report, Doug. I must give the Leo Double Double a look! Out of I interest, what zoom were you using? 

Hope you and your family are keeping well. 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks Doug I have never heard of the Leo double double. That is a great diagram - I will give it ago. I want to test my new Nagler 3-6 mm zoom.

[cloudsweeper]

50 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Nice report, Doug. I must give the Leo Double Double a look! Out of I interest, what zoom were you using? 

Hope you and your family are keeping well. 

Thanks Neil - mine is a Meade 8-24mm.  I should have noted the mags I was using with it, but I had slipped the little Barlow in so forgot where I was up to!

All well with us, thank goodness, thanks for asking.  Best wishes to you and yours, stay safe!

Doug.

53 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Thanks Doug I have never heard of the Leo double double. That is a great diagram - I will give it ago. I want to test my new Nagler 3-6 mm zoom.

Thank you Mark.  The 3-6mm zoom will be great for keeping really tight doubles in view and in focus (more or less), although you won't really need it for the Leo DD!

Doug.

[wookie1965]

Great report Doug some great targets in there and loads of information. 

I think there are a couple I've not viewed I will have to check my notes. 

[cloudsweeper]

7 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Great report Doug some great targets in there and loads of information. 

I think there are a couple I've not viewed I will have to check my notes. 

Thanks Paul.  Yes, the more you do this, the more you see the need keep records - what you've seen; what you hope to see!

Doug.