A quick 90mins session

[lunator]

Last night was looking fairly promising and i wantd to check up on RS Oph. 

I have my grab and go set up of ST80, photo tripod and ortho eyepieces.

I put the scope in the middle of the garden to cool down a bit whilst trying to avoid the slugs and snails (they have had a very successful year this year, the pea plants less so...). 

I placed my observing log and pencil case on the swing seat, I do love a bit of high-tech

First stop RS Oph. My route to finding it is start at Rasalhague (Alpha Oph) and move down to 67/68/70 Oph. Go south from this triangle and you will find a fainter triangle of Zeta Ser/HR6686/6706. On the opposite of the triangle from Zeta Ser are the 3 stars HD162713/1562834 and YOph. RS Oph is in the same field of view.

 Rs Oph is fading but at a slower rate now. It has changed from a golden yellow to a more reddish-yellow. Around Mag 8. plenty of similar stars to compare it to. 

Next planned stop were STF1814/1829 in Bootes went via Mizar and Alcor. Mizar were is neat pair of white stars just split at x16. 

I was disturbed at this point by our semi-domesticated hedgehog 'Ethel' crashing through the undergrowth. I moved to see where she was and realised if I moved the scope I could see Saturn and Jupiter. I spent a good 30 mins viewing them. 

The ST80 had started to dew up so I called it a night. 

I will add reports in the appropriate section for the double and planets. 

Cheers

Ian

[John]

Sounds like a nice session Ian. Ethel seemed to be enjoying herself as well !

[JeremyS]

Great report @lunator 👍🏻

[Muc]

Your route to the nova is the exact same as myself. It's like reading someone else's description of a good friend 🙂

[lunator]

Hi John, yes it was nice to get out

[lunator]

I managed a very short session last night, the was a 45 min clear patch between the clouds.

A quick check in on RS Oph. Still about mag 8.2 not major change but the redness is quite noticeable. I will miss RS when it is back to 11th-12th Mag. I have been reading the free papers submitted in it and it seems there has been quite a lot of discussion about it's nature and distance etc. I even looked into the Gaia data and the orbit would swamp the parallax signal so they don't have. a distance for RS.

Next stop was Saturn. Titan was clearly visible and I thought I got a glimpse of the Cassini division at x100 (4mm ortho)

It may just have been averted imagination :).

Final port of call was Jupiter. It was only just clear of the house but seeing was good enough to see several cloud bans and the GRS. The best views were at x80 & x100. I could see 3 moons but it was not until I came in looked at Sky Safari I discovered Io and Europa were on 2" apart so I was looking at 2 moons but not realising this. The OMC might have been a better one to see this in.

The clouds rolled in at this point. 

As a PS Ethel joined in and I have now designated her my official hedgehog observing Companion

Cheers

Ian

[JeremyS]

Nice job, Ian @lunator 👍🏻