3 Aquila Doubles, 2 Gas Giants

[cloudsweeper]

8.25pm, Tuesday – clear and mild (T-shirt conditions!) – first session in weeks, great to be out – I used the AR127L on the Skytee II, plus observing chair: a great and easy set-up.  Altair was visible.  Using x40 / 2.04deg, it was an easy hop from that to:

Σ2621 / SAO 125416, an 8^th mag pair, 5.5” apart.  Target was at the end of an “L” of three faint stars.  Going to x80 revealed two sharp, matched, faint, close stars – secondary at 8 o’clock, very pleasing.  Then, very close to Altair:

Σ2590 / SAO 105355, 6.5 and 10.3, 14” apart.  Easily located, in another “L”, but at the junction.  Got the split at x40 as expected, although the secondary (at 11 o’clock) was very faint and needed AV.

57 Aql / SAO 143898, two inseparable pairs at 5^th and 6^th mags, a large 36” apart, was a bit trickier to locate.  It was well split at x40, and a close match, with the stars in a vertical line, and only one other in the field.  A lovely sight.

By 9.10, Saturn (low, at 15deg) had emerged from houses, SSE.  8^th mag moon Titan was clear.  At x80, 9^th mag moon Rhea was evident using AV.  x120 – Saturn was still very sharp, with fine open rings, no false colour detected.  x150 – not as good a view.

By 9.25, Jupiter (also low, about 14deg) was just above the rooftops, SE.  Io was to its east, and Callisto and Ganymede west, Callisto being at about 10 o’clock to Ganymede.  x120 – N and S equatorial belts were clear, and just a little false colour showed up.

9.40 – finished a most enjoyable session. 

(The AR127L OTA is currently in the For Sale section.  A fine telescope indeed, but I’m saving for a 152!)

Doug.

 

 

[Stu]

Great session @cloudsweeper. Getting an even bigger canon eh? Which one, a 152 f5.9?

Looks like you just missed seeing Europa appear from shadow beyond the limb of Jupiter, happened at about 9.41!

[cloudsweeper]

42 minutes ago, Stu said:

Great session @cloudsweeper. Getting an even bigger canon eh? Which one, a 152 f5.9?

Looks like you just missed seeing Europa appear from shadow beyond the limb of Jupiter, happened at about 9.41!

Thanks Stu.  I fancy the ES AR152/988 with f/6.5 - not too fast!

Doug.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, cloudsweeper said:

Thanks Stu.  I fancy the ES AR152/988 with f/6.5 - not too fast!

Doug.

Might be worth a read. The f5.9s are surprisingly good I think. They are supposedly better colour corrected than the 150 f8s. 

https://www.scopereviews.com/page1y.html