Milky Skies Tonight

[John]

Transparency is really missing tonight - the skies are milky / soupy here with just the brighter constellation stars showing through.

Not going to have a long session so I just took in a few double stars with the 100mm refractor.

Had my first look at Mu Cygni this year. It's right at the tip of the Swan's lower wing - opposite tip to Delta Cygni. Mu is a nice multiple star system and the principle showpiece is the close pair of magnitude 4.8 and 6.2 respectively with just 1.51 arc seconds currently separating them.

Interesting to compare Mu Cygni with Pi Aquillae which is a mag 6.3 and 6.7 pair at 1.4 arc seconds apart. Mu is a little easier but both a nice challenge for a 10cm aperture with tonights conditions.

Not much in the way of DSO's going tonight but some nice binaries make having the scope out worthwhile

 

[Nik271]

Thanks for the suggestion, John! I will try Mu Cygni with my small Mak, at 120mm it should be doable in it. 

[John]

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Thanks for the suggestion, John! I will try Mu Cygni with my small Mak, at 120mm it should be doable in it. 

Yes, you should be able to get the fainter members of the system as well, which I could not last night, with the 100mm and the lack of transparency. Here is the entry on the "Star Splitters" web site for this binary:

https://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/mu-μ-cygni-musings/

 

[markse68]

it was dreadful last night- I struggled to see Polaris and the planets were very mushy so I quit early

Wasnt all bad though- the moon looked lovely and my new XL28mm gives the perfect full disk framing for long meditative gazing at its wonder- a new fave moon ep. Caught a flying thing crossing the disk- looked like a bunch of 3 balloons but might have been aliens. Love it when that happens. Still hopeful of catching an impact. Alas with it being so low this month whilst that gives it a lovely warm coloration, viewing was cut all too short by a pesky fence. Forecast is clear again tonight- fingers crossed all the moisture has been driven out the last few days and the night is a bit more transparent!

Mark

Edited July 22, 2021 by markse68

[Nik271]

1 hour ago, John said:

Yes, you should be able to get the fainter members of the system as well, which I could not last night, with the 100mm and the lack of transparency. Here is the entry on the "Star Splitters" web site for this binary:

https://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/mu-μ-cygni-musings/

 

Interesting read, there are lots of stars to see in that system! Needs both excellent seeing and transparency for the dim ones.

[Nik271]

An update: I managed to split the close AB pair of Mu Cygni last night 🙂  Used the 127 Mak and 6mm EP giving x250 which was just about right for the conditions. The seeing was decent, neither great nor poor and the secondary popped out  NW of the primary after staring at it for a minute or so. Star D was very prominent 3' away but I could not spot the dimmer C and F as it was not totally dark at 11pm. Surprisingly the AB split of Mu was cleaner than splitting Delta Cygni later the same night despite Mu being much lower in the sky and with closer separation, probably because of the much smaller difference in magnitudes. The little Mak performed very well again.

All in all a good end to this spell of good weather! Cloud and rain forecast from tonight